Revenge and Justice
by Darkwarriorthecursedhero
Summary: Just like Team RWBY, Team JNPR were sent to Planet Earth. However, they weren't sent to the same city as them but to a place called Detroit, Michigan. Follow along as Team JNPR teams up with a dark vigilante as they look for away home, fight crime, and eat pancakes.
1. Chapter 1

Revenge And Justice

By: darkwarriorthecursedhero

Assisted by: FireKitsune1

Chapter 1: Artifact of the Cursed Hero

Heroes…those who fight for the sake of others.

Villains…those who fight for their own sake.

For countless eons these two groups of polar opposites have clashed in endless combat for what they believe in. Many believe that there are only two lines that one can follow; the white line that heroes follow and the black line that villains roam. But what most people don't know or understand is that there is a third line, one that heroes nor villains weren't meant to walk, the gray line.

This grey line exists in-between the boundaries of the white and black line in which only one type of person can truly call their own, the antiheroes. These antiheroes walks a fine line that allows them to make their own choices that are not restricted to good or evil, black or white. They follow their own path, whether it leads them down the path of the mighty heroes or the ways of the sinister villains. They are truly the masters of their fate.

This path between black and white is where our story begins.

-Remnant, in Team JNPR's dorm room-

The four members of Team JNPR were sleeping peacefully in their dorm room, having pleasant dreams that made them smile. The peace was soon ruined by Nora Valkyrie, who suddenly woke up and immediately smiled with her signature wide grin as she climbed out of her bed. She tiptoed to her bag, opened it, and pulled out a megaphone she bought not that long ago.

She turned towards her teammates and turned it on before lifting it close to her mouth and inhaled.

"GOOD MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORNIIIIIIING!" Nora yelled into the megaphone, which magnified her already loud voice to epic proportions. The effect was immediate as her three friends propelled themselves off their beds in fright and landed onto the floors painfully on their backs and rear-ends.

Her teammates were shell shocked as they tried their best to calm their racing hearts.

"Nora! What in the name of Oum are you doing!?" Pyrrha exclaimed as she picked herself up while rubbing her sore butt.

"I wanted to make sure that you all were ready for the big day today!" Nora explained, pumping her fist in the air in excitement.

Ren sighed. "What are you talking about Nora?" Ren groan in annoyance.

If Nora noticed her childhood friend's agitation, she hid it well as she turned to grin at him, her eyes sparkling.

"Didn't you hear the rumor?" Nora questioned the magenta eyed male.

Pyrrha approached Nora curiously. "What rumor?" Pyrrha asked, wondering if this rumor was worth waking them up in such a loud and horrible manner.

"The one about Professor Oobleck discovering an ancient temple where two tall, living statues protect a very valuable relic silly!" Nora then proceeded to poke Pyrrha with a resounding 'boop'.

Ren face palmed, his face clearly saying 'it's too early for this'. "For Oum sakes Nora, that sounds completely ridiculous. There is no way that statues could come to life." Ren told her.

"Yeah, but you have to agree that sounds really cool." Jaune argued.

"Jaune, please don't encourage her." Pyrrha told Jaune in a no nonsense tone, knowing how enthusiastic Nora can be.

Ren ignored them and headed towards their shared dresser. "Well since we're all already up, we should try to get ready to class." Ren suggested as he fished out his school uniform. They all agreed and took turns taking a shower then got dressed in their uniforms. When it was time to go to class, they left to go to their first class of the day, which was Professor Goodwitch's battle class. They entered the classroom and hoped that the day would be great.

Unfortunately for them, things can't always be what you'd hope them to be. As they were waiting for their turn to spar, the intercom system screeched into life.

"Would Team JNPR please report to Professor Ozpin's office? Team JNPR please report to the office." The announcer said before the intercom turned off. The team gave each other confused and worried expression before getting up and leaving the classroom.

As they headed towards the Headmaster's office, the team couldn't help but wonder why they were being summoned to see Professor Ozpin's office.

Pyrrha leaned towards the blonde leader. "Hey Jaune!" Pyrrha whispered into her crushes ear. "You don't think that they found out about the 'you know what' do you?"

Jaune felt his heart drop into his stomach, knowing that she was referring to the fact that he forged his entry papers so he could come to the academy. "I...hope not." Jaune said as they stopped in front of Ozpin's office door.

They entered the room and were shocked to see that both Team CFVY and CRDL were already waiting in the office in front of Ozpin's desk.

The team approached Ozpin and the other two teams.

"Hey Professor Ozpin, why are we here?" Jaune asked the Headmaster. Ozpin took a sip from his coffee mug then placed it on his desk.

"Everything will be explained after Team RWBY arrives Mr. Arc." The grey haired man calmly assured him. "But before then, why don't you and your team sit down by Team CRDL?" Ozpin gestured towards the four seats that were next to Cardin's team. They silently took their seats, resigning to their fate to wait for the last team to show up.

Luckily for them, mere moments later the four members of Team RWBY entered the room and stared at all of them in confusion.

Jaune glanced at Ozpin and saw that he was smiling. "Team RWBY, nice to see that the four of you were able to make it. We were just about to get started our discussion." Ozpin explained as he took a sip from his coffee mug. After Blake asked Ozpin why they were there, the Headmaster politely asked them to sit before he told them the purpose for being summoned.

As Team RWBY made their way to the seats beside Team JNPR, Pyrrha leaned slightly towards Jaune. "So what do you think he'll tell us?" Pyrrha asked the blonde warrior.

"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with the rumors." Jaune theorized.

"I doubt it." Ren replied from besides Jaune.

It was at this point that Ozpin took another sip of coffee. "Alright then, as I'm sure you are aware by now, there is a rumor going around about an ancient temple that was discovered by Professor Oobleck during the last weekend and what could possibly be found inside." Ozpin told them.

Jaune looked towards Ren to gloat about being right, pausing abruptly when he noticed the glare that adored the normally calm Ren that said 'Say anything and you will feel it in the morning.' Jaune did the smart thing and looked back towards Ozpin.

"To put those rumors to rest, I'm here to tell you that the rumors are in fact true." The four teams started to mutter to each other in shock and confusion before being silenced by Ozpin raising his hand "The reason that I brought all of you here today is simple, I'm assigning all of you to investigate the temple and the artifact that is hidden within."

"Why are you asking us to look at some old, crumbling temple?" Cardin demanded, not seeing a reason for them to go.

Ozpin turned his attention towards the bulky team leader. "We have reasons to believe that the statues that attacked Professor Oobleck are protecting something potentially dangerous. Therefore it may be in our collective best interests to investigate and make sure that it isn't dangerous. And who better to send then out top four teams we have available." Ozpin explained.

Cardin looked at the Headmaster for a moment before nodding in understanding. "Alright, I get that. But there's no way I'm working alongside an animal like her." Cardin stated with a sneer as he pointing towards Velvet who looked down sadly with a hurt expression.

Team JNPR collectively narrowed their eyes at the buff bully.

"Why can't Cardin just leave Velvet alone?" Jaune asked in a low voice.

"I've been wondering that myself." Ren stated, having witnessed Cardin signal her out among the other faunus that went to this school.

Pyrrha scowled. "I wish I could teach him and his team a lesson." Pyrrha admitted, wishing to have a repeat of the time she took down his entire team signal handedly in a sparring session.

Nora didn't say anything on the manner as she stared at Cardin's legs with a malicious smile, imagining the sound it would make when she breaks his legs.

Everyone else that wasn't part of his team glared at him, including Ozpin. "Need I remind you that she is a year above you?" Ozpin asked, narrowing his eyes at the Faunus hater. "You will treat her with respect and as an equal. No exceptions." There was no hint of negotiation in his tone as he gave Cardin a look that unnerved the brunette.

Cardin huffed. "Whatever." Cardin told him and went silent, causing Ozpin to nod. After a few tense moments, Jaune raised his hand. "So how are we going to get to the temple anyway?" The blonde boy asked, making Ozpin smile. "The same way you got to Beacon in the first place." Ozpin told him.

Jaune gave an uncomfortable look. "Oh crap."

"YEAH!" Nora yelled excitedly as she leaped off her chair and jumped up and down.

-Airship, three hours later-

Jaune Arc was currently throwing up in a bin that was nearby while Pyrrha soothed him by rubbing his back.

"Why…did it…have to be…an airship?" Jaune said in between throwing up, mentally scolding his mental sickness for acting up so easily.

Pyrrha gave him sympathetic looks as her leader continued to throw up.

"It could have been worse." Pyrrha said in an attempt to comfort the blonde.

'I beg to differ.' Jaune thought bitterly as he took a few deep breaths and threw up again.

While this was happening, Ruby and Weiss were talking to each other.

"Soooooo." Ruby said with a wide grin. "It looks like we got to go on that treasure hunt after all." Ruby told Weiss who simply nodded. "Looks like it, but I still don't believe that the statues really came to life." Weiss stated with a matter of fact type of tone.

Ren, who was sitting next to the two along with Nora, decided to add his two cents. "Who knows whether or not the statues are alive?" Ren stated with a shrug. "I'm personally more interested in the statues themselves then I am about if Ozpin said was true or not.

"Yeah!" Nora suddenly said while poking her head over Ren's shoulders to stare at Ruby and Weiss. "And besides, if it's true then I get to smash them both up into pieces." The others couldn't help but smile at Nora's enthusiasm.

-Five hours later-

The air ship finally landed a few miles away from the temple.

The four teams left the temple and trekked through the thick forest. After thirty minutes of walking, they finally stumbled across the temple that the rumors were talking about.

"Wow!" Jaune stated loudly in awe as he glanced at the large temple. "This place is huge!"

"No kidding! This place is bigger than Beacon academy!" Yang said as she whistled at the size of it. Ren nodded in agreement. "We should be careful; we don't know what could happen in there."

When Ren said that, everyone went into high alert as they crossed over a bridge that was above a deep chasm, unaware that one of the statues at the front of the temple turned its head to look at them. The statue was a dark grey color and had a helmet on that had a V shaped visor. The statue silently pulled it's sword from its back and prepared to slice the four teams before they realize that it's alive.

As they walked towards the temple, Jaune raised a very important question.

"So what do you think the relic is?" Jaune asked out loud.

Ren shrugged. "I have no idea, but whatever it is, it must be pretty valuable to be put in a place like this."

Nora, who was walking beside Ren and Pyrrha, grinned. "Oh oh oh, maybe it's a crystal sloth." Nora answered hopefully.

Pyrrha shook her head. "How did I know you're going to bring up?" Pyrrha asked

At that point, the statue was a second away from swinging its stone sword at them and knocking them off the bridge. Luckily, with her sensitive hearing, Blake was able to hear the slight creaking that the statue's joints made when its arm was moving.

"LOOK OUT!" Blake yelled as the statue swung its giant blade.

Blake's warning alerted everyone of the appending danger which allowed them to dodge the stone blade before it could kill them where they stood. The large group recovered, they looked upon the statue in shock.

"The statues are really alive!" Weiss stated with wide eyes.

"And it looks like it has a brother." Ruby added as she spotted another statue walking towards them. This statue had a similar design as the one that attacked them, but this one was silver instead of dark grey. When the statue was close enough, it stopped and drew its own sword, prepared to fight them alongside its fellow statue.

A moment of silence passed before the two statues charged towards the four teams, starting the battle. The Silver statue swiped its massive sword at Yang as she dodged it and jumps on its hand. She rushed towards the statue's head and tries to punch it with her Ember Celica equipped, hoping to deal enough damage to bring it down only for the statue to smack her off its shoulder with its other hand. When she collided with the ground, she was knocked out from the impact and out of the fight.

Ren then tried shooting at the silver statue, only for the dust bullets to prove ineffective as they harmlessly bounce off its stony exterior. The statue kicked Ren aside as Jaune charged at it and swings at its leg, managing to cut into the stone leg. But to Jaune's horror, not only did it do nothing to harm the stone creature, but his sword ended up getting stuck in the leg. As he attempted to pull it out, the silver statue bend over and grabbed Jaune by his shirt collar as he struggled desperately to get loose.

The silver statue held Jaune close to its visor, as if staring at his very soul. To say this unnerved the blonde would be an understatement. The others didn't dare attack in fear of inferably hurting Jaune. Luckily for him, his predicament didn't last long when the dark grey statue stopped fighting Ruby and Blake.

"Your heart…is pure." The statue told her with a deep, gravelly voice. "You…are…worthy

Ruby simply stared at the talking statue. Suddenly she yelled out. "YOU CAN TALK!?" Ruby exclaimed, causing the others, including the silver statue that had picked up Jaune by his collar, to stop what they were doing. "Indeed I can." The dark grey statue told her with a nod. "We both are capable of speech." The statue looked at its silvery counterpart.

Brother, would you kindly release that human?" The silver statue nodded and slowly lowered Jaune down to the ground and released his collar.

"There you go." The silver statue told Jaune, who shakily walked towards his team

Pyrrha immediately dashed towards Jaune and clamped her hands on his shoulders. "are you all right Jaune?" The Spartan asked the blonde.

Jaune shakily nodded his head. "I'm fine, but I think I'll avoid statues for awhile." Jaune admitted.

The silver statue plucks Jaune's sword out of his leg and gives it back to him "If it's any consolation, your heart is exceptionally pure." The statue told Jaune.

"Thanks...I guess." The shield and sword wielding hunter-in-training said. The silver statue nodded before standing by it's twin.

"Please allow me to introduce ourselves. We are the statues of the great Dark Warrior and Light Warrior. I am the statue of the Dark Warrior while my brother is the statue of the Light Warrior." The Dark Statue told them. "We were created long ago to protect this temple and the artifact within, waiting for someone worthy to seek it. For you see, we are able to read hearts."

While everyone was listening to his explanation, Ren walked toward the dark statue with a small frown on his face."So why did you attack our professor if you could read his heart?" Ren inquired. The statues looked at each other as if nervous.

It was the statue of the Light-Warrior that answered. "You don't happen to mean that bizarre green hair man? He was running so fast that we were not able to confirm whether or not his heart was pure or not. So we decided to attack just to be safe in case he was not pure of heart." He explained.

The members of the four teams nodded in understanding. Professor Oobleck really needed to lay off the coffee.

"So what is the relic anyway?" Blake asked them, voicing the question that everyone was pondering since they heard of it. Luckily, the statue of the Dark Warrior was more than willing to answer her.

"The artifact that you speak of is a scale that connects two worlds together. This one which is inhabited by humans, faunus, and the Grim alike while the other one is inhabited solely by humans." The dark grey statue answered, earning a scoff from Weiss.

Nora's normally cheery face frowned. "So it's not a Crystal sloth?" Nora asked sadly.

Ren sighed. "Sorry Nora, but it's not." Ren gave her the bad news.

Nora looked down in sadness and disappointment. Ren gave her a sympathetic look and patted her on her shoulder.

That's completely absurd!" Weiss told them. "That is completely impossible." If the statues had eyebrows, they would raise them at her remark. "And yet your here right now, talking to two moving, talking statues and saying that having two different worlds connected together is too farfetched?" The Silver statue asked her with amusement, causing her to pause for a moment. "Good point." Weiss said with a blush, clearly embarrassed.

"Wait, you said that you two were the statues of the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?" Velvet asked them. "Who are they?"

Ren nodded, wanting to know that as well.

The twin statues turned to stare at each other for a moment before turning their attention back to the group. "We will explain who they are once you retrieve the artifact." The Dark Warrior statue stated.

Coco lowered her signature shades. "So you're going to let us through?" Coco asked them as the statues nodded.

"Of course, from what we were able to see, you all seems to be worthy of it. Except those four right there." The Light Warrior statue stated as he turned towards Team CRDL as if glaring at them.

The team looked surprised. "WHAT! Why aren't we allowed to go get it?!" Cardin demanded with a scowl.

"We saw nothing but hatred and cruelty within your hearts, especially in yours Cardin Winchester." The Dark Warrior Statue stated, earning nods from the other teams and a shocked look from Cardin.

"H-how do you know my name?!" Cardin asked them, feeling slightly unnerved by the fact that they knew his name.

"Our ability to read people's hearts also allows us to read their memories as well so we know everything about you. And to be honest, I am disgusted at how you treat others." The statue explained.

"So you know everything about us?" Fox asked them. The silver statue nodded. "Yes, and we even know things about you that you don't even know about yourselves." He explained. "But enough about that, you have proven yourselves and shall be allowed to pass." The two statues moved out of their way as they started to move passed them, With Blake carrying the still unconscious Yang along.

The silver statue his hand out when Jaune and Pyrrha, who were near the back of the line, tried to go through.

"Wait a moment Jaune Arc, I wish to have a word with you if you would." The Statue said.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other with uncertainty. Jaune gestured Pyrrha to go on without him. She hesitated for a moment but nodded, walking away so Jaune and the statue can talk.

"What do you need?" Jaune asked.

"I have seen through your memories...and seen everything." The Silver statue told him. Jaune gave him a funny look before realizing that meant that it saw 'that memory' as well.

"You don't mean? You know about-"

"About the fake transcripts?" The statue interrupted. "Yes, I know about that."

Jaune felt panic well up inside him. "Please don't tell any-"

"And I am impressed." It told him, interrupting him again.

"I'll get in trouble and-Wait what?" Jaune asked after hearing what the statue said afterwards. "Why would you be impressed with that?" Jaune questioned.

"While you faked your way into the academy, you have shown the qualities that it takes to be a huntsman, as well as a great leader. When someone blackmailed you, you refuse to let your team get hurt even though you knew that once the secret is out you would have been kicked out. To be willing to risk everything for others surpass any hero I have ever seen and believe me, you are probably one of the best heroes I have seen." The silver statue told him.

Jaune didn't know what to say, someone that he was fighting not even five minutes ago has confidence in his abilities.

"Th-thank you!" Jaune told the statue, feeling happy inside.

If the statue was capable of smiling, it would be doing so right then and there. "It is no problem friend, and don't worry your secret is safe."

Jaune smiled for another moment before rushed past the giant statue and joined everyone else in the temple.

As the teams trekked through the temple, their curiosity about the two warriors the statues spoke of were boiling in their minds

"Who do you guys think the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are?" Velvet questioned out loud.

"Whoever they are, they must have been pretty important to have two gigantic statues build for them." Coco answered, adjusting the strap for her handbag/mini gun.

At this point, Yang slowly started to regain consciousness. "Ooooh, what happened?" Yang moaned as she held her throbbing head.

"Um...we'll explain on the way out." Blake told her as she let Yang go so she can walk.

They eventually made it to the center of the temple and noticed a tomb with a cross on its side. "Do you think the artifact is in there?" Fox asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Nora grinned as she took out her war hammer, walked over to the tomb, and preceded to smash the lid of the tomb to pieces. "NORA!" Everyone yelled out in shock and disbelieve.

"What?" Nora asked in confusion. "You wanted it open didn't you?"

Everyone walked over to the now opened tomb to see a skeleton wearing what looked like the remains of a torn up black outfit and like a smaller, slightly broken version of the helmet that the statues were wearing. The broken helmet revealed the skeletal face of the person in the tomb.

In the clutches of the skeletal hand was the artifact that they came here for. The Scales of Light and Darkness.

Everyone stared at the scale for a few moments. "Soooo...who's going to get it?" Ren asked to everyone, not wanting to get closer to the body.

"I think that you should do it Jaune." Pyrrha told her leader. "WHAT?! WHY ME!?" Jaune cried out. "Because you're the leader and your closer to it." Pyrrha answered, trying to hide the fact that she didn't want to go near the skeleton.

Jaune gulped as he reaches for artifact, grabbed it, and yanked his arm back. The artifact was dislodged from the skeletal hand's grip, causing Jaune to sigh in relieve before realizing that the skeleton's arm was still attached to the scale.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Jaune screamed like a little girl and panics, accidentally throwing the scale and knocking the hand off.

Ruby quickly runs to the fallen scale and picks it up happily.

Jaune was quickly wiping his hands on his pants with a grossed out look. "Pyrrha, I am never doing that ever again!" Jaune told her as she walked up to him.

"Come on, it's just a skeleton. It's not like it's going to come to life or attack us." Jaune shook his head.

"Yeah well, it's still creeps me out." Jaune stated.

They then walk towards Ruby

It's so beautiful.' Ruby thought as she turned back to the others. "Hey guys, you should take a look at this." Ruby called out. Before long, everyone was crowding around Ruby and the scale.

"It's so shiny!" Nora stated, earning a nod from everyone. "It's certainly looks kind of cool." Fox remarked. "What do you think it's made from?" Weiss asked.

"By the look of it, I think it might be marble and obsidian." Pyrrha guessed.

"We should probably get out of here and talk to the statues and pick up Team CRDL" Blake told them. After everyone agreed, they left the room and headed to the front of the temple where they saw the statues and Team CRDL, the latter looking bored and irritated.

Sensing that they were out of the temple, the statues turned towards the three teams. "Ah, I see that you found the artifact okay." The dark grey statue commented. Ruby nodded and held out the scales. "Yes sir, he found it without a hitch." Ruby stated with a broad smile.

Velvet walked up to the statues. "So will you tell us about the Dark Warrior and Light Warrior?"

The silver statue nodded. "Of course. The Dark Warrior and Light Warrior are-" Whatever he was about to say was silenced when something came flying towards his head and collided with it, causing his head to explode, destroying the Silver statue.

"NO!" Jaune yelled as the remains of the statue dropped to the ground.

Everyone watched in horror as the once great statue crumbled as he died. "BROTHE-" Just like his brother, the dark grey statue was interrupted by something hitting his chest and exploding in impact. Fortunately he did not start crumbling away like his brother.

Everyone gathered around the statue of the Dark Warrior who looked like he was in agony.

"Oh my Oum! Are you going to be alright?!" Coco asked him, taking off her glasses which showed her horrified face. The statue started to grunt as he tried to get up, but failed to do so as he fell back down. "I'm afraid that I will not be alright, I feel my life energy fading from me." The statue told everyone. "Who...would do this to my brother?"

"That would be me." A man's voice said. Everyone looked towards the source of the voice to see Hei Xiong or Junior as most people known him as, walked out of the shadows with his signature missile launcher slung over his shoulder.

Yang's eyes turned red as she angrily growls at him. "Junior! You backstabbing jerk!"

Junior raised his and defensively. "Now now Blondie. No hard feelings, but he was bad for business. Now how about you brats hand us that artifact you have and this won't get ugly."

Velvet's eyes widen. "Wait? Us?"

Junior smirked. "Yup, my friends and I want that artifact. Isn't that right everyone?" As he said this, more people started to appear from the shadows of the jungle.

The teams were shocked when they noticed Roman Torchwick was among the group. "ROMAN!? How did you get out!?" Ruby exclaimed in shock. Roman chuckled at her question. "Well you see Red, I had help from my lovely assistant Neo and my allies right here." Roman explained as he pointed towards Cinder and her minions.

Emerald and Mercury were wearing the same type of suit as their boss Cinder was but Mercury's suit was grey while Emerald's was green. Cinder smirked as she waved towards Ruby. "Hello there, remember me?" Ruby glared at the women who she fought while Homecoming was going on.

Blake was staring at Adam will he smirked at her. "It's been awhile hasn't it Blake?" Adam taunted. "Adam!" Blake said with narrowed eyes.

"We waited a long time for this." Melanie said. "This time, we will win." Her twin, Militia, added. Yang smirked towards them as she cracked her next and fists. "Looks like it's time for round two."

Jaune was not paying attention to the villains and the Battle that was about to ensured to happen. He silently walked towards the remains of the silver statue with a mournful expression. After a few moments, he stopped in front of the stone and stood there.

'Why...why did he have to die?' Jaune that to himself, tears threatening to . He turned his attention to the one who murdered his new friend, Junior, and the sadness that he felt was replaced with pure rage. Without thinking, Jaune drew his sword and charged right at Junior, blinded by his rage.

His rage filled charge was stopped by Ruby, who rushed right past him as she headed straight towards Cinder, who barely had enough time to block when Ruby swung Crescent Rose at her. Cinder tried desperately to hold Ruby in place as she tried to make a grab for the scale from Ruby's hand. When her hand finally touched the scale, a shining light erupted from it, blinding everyone in the area.

Then suddenly beams of light rocketed out of the scale and collided with everyone in the area. When the light died down, everyone was gone and the forest was dark once again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The One Who Walks the Grey Line

The first thing that Jaune began very aware when he slowly regained consciousness was that he was laying on something comfortable and that he had a splitting headache. He groaned as he opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" Jaune asked to himself, alerting his teammates to his wakefulness.

Pyrrha was immediately by his side. "Jaune!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she helped him sit up on the couch he was sleeping on. "Thank Oum that you're alright."

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked in confusion as he looked around to see that his team was together in a room he wasn't familiar with. "Where are we?"

Ren, who was leaning on a walk, was the one to answer. "We have no idea. We were at the temple one moment, and then we all woke up in this house for some reason." He calmly told his leader.

"But the nice man who lives here was kind enough to let us stay until we were better." Nora cheerfully explained. As she said that, a white man wearing a white t-shirt and black pajama pants and slippers walked into his room. Jaune noticed that he had long black, shaggy hair, brown eyes, and glasses.

"I see that you're finally awake." The man said as he walked over to Jaune and extended his hand in greeting. "My name is Edward Charles, but you can just call me Ed for short."

Jaune took the man's hand and shook it.

"We appreciate your help Ed, but could you tell us where we are?" Jaune asked.

Edward raised his eyebrow at his question. "Um...you're all in Detroit Michigan." Edward told them.

"Detroit?" Ren asked.

"What kind of name is Detroit?" Pyrrha wondered in.

Unlike them, Nora wasn't affected by the name of the city they were currently in. "OHOHOH! Is it a place where hopes and dreams are made Mr. Ed?" Nora excitedly asked the black haired man. In response, Edward sweat dropped at her question.

"I'm afraid that the opposite is true." Ed admitted before his face grew stern. "And please keep it down, my daughter is trying to-"

"Daddy?" The voice that sounded like a small girl said from the doorway. Everyone turned to see that a five year old girl that stood at 3'7" was standing at the doorway who was rubbing the sleep from her eye. She was wearing a one piece nightgown and a teddy bear that was half black and half white in her hand. Her short hair was white as snow while her eyes were yellow like the sun. But the feature that grabbed everyone's attention was the white cat ears that was on top of her head.

Everyone was silent for a moment before Nora broke it like Magnhild to a knee cap.

"OH MY OUM SHE IS SO CUTE!" Nora screamed loudly as she runs up to the little girl and grabs her, hugging her tightly as the girl starts to panic.

"Nora! Put the kid down!" Ren demanded, clearly seeing the uncomfortable look in the catgirl's eyes.

Nora pouted and hugged the girl closer to her. "But she's so cute!" Nora whined childishly, giving him the dreaded puppy eyes. Ren wasn't having any of that.

"Nora, now." Ren said sternly. Nora hesitated for a moment before groaning.

"Fine." Nora relented and released the little white haired girl, who immediately ran towards Ed. The older man picks his daughter up and cradles her in his arms as she hide her face in the crook of his neck.

"Daddy who are these people and who's that scary lady!" The girl said as she started to shake.

Nora pouted at being called 'scary'. "I'm not scary, I'm adorable and funny!" Nora told the little girl with a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Nora, that's not helping." Ren deadpanned.

Ed rubbed the young child's head to calm her down, which helped because she stopped shaking and started purring. "Don't worry Violet; they're not going to hurt you." Ed said in a assuring tone. "They're our guests." Ed then turned their attention to the group.

"Everyone, this is my daughter Violet." Ed introduced his daughter. Violet lifted her face from her father's neck and looked at the group and waved in greeting. The members of Team JNPR mirror her actions and waved back.

"Nice to meet you Violet, I'm Jaune Arc." Jaune introduced himself.

"I'm Pyrrha Nikos." Pyrrha followed her leader's example.

"My name is Nora Valkyrie, cutie." The hyperactive Nora told Violet, which made Violet twitched in discomfort.

"And I'm Lie Ren." Ren said with a short bow.

Ed smiled and nodded his head. "It's nice to meet all of you." Ed said politely before frowning. "But I have to ask, why were you four in an alleyway?" Ed asked them.

The group, not knowing what he was talking about, looked at him in confusion.

"Alleyway?" The quartet asked at the same time.

"Yes, I found you all in a alleyway near here a few hours ago when you were all out cold." Ed explained.

"I see, did you find anyone else with us when you found us?" Ren asked hopefully, thinking that maybe some of their friends might have been there with them when Ed found them. His shoulder slumped when Ed shook his head no.

"No, I only found you four." Ed told them.

They were silent for a moment.

"Thank you for being so hospitable towards us, but we really need to start searching for our friends." Pyrrha stated as they started to head towards the front door.

Ed stopped them. "Do you all have a place to live?" Ed asked them.

They all glanced at each other then shook their heads.

"Then I suggest you stay somewhere tonight." Ed suggested.

Ren nodded in agreement. "I agree; it would be a wise choice to find somewhere to stay the night and start our search in the morning." Ren pointed out.

"Like where? We don't exactly know our way around the place." Jaune told Ren.

Ed smiled. "Well, I do have a friend that owns an apartment. Just tell him that I sent you and I think he would be willing to give you four a room to stay in for the night." Ed gave Pyrrha a piece a paper with directions to the apartment.

"Thank you sir." Pyrrha thanked. "We'll be on our way."

They turned to exit the door, only to be stopped by Ed. "Be careful out there, there are some real crazy people that like to come out at this time." Ed warned them.

Jaune waved at him as they exited the door. "Alright, we'll make sure to watch ourselves." Jaune promised before going through the door and closed it behind him.

"What a nice guy." Jaune commented as they walked down the street, carefully reading and following the directions.

"Yeah, and he's such a good father too." Pyrrha added.

"And responsible." Ren said after Pyrrha.

"His daughter is so adorable." Nora stated with her hands folded behind her head.

Jaune took a breath of the crisp, night air as he looked up. "The sky looks very nice tonight. No clouds, the stars are all out, the moon is in one piece and-" Jaune paused, his eyes widen in realization.

"Wait...THE MOON IS IN ONE PIECE!?" Jaune yelled, catching everyone's attention.

Everyone snapped their heads upwards to stare at the moon. Sure enough, where the shattered moon they were used to would have been, a whole moon was in its place.

"Looks like we're not in Remnant anymore." Nora stated bluntly, looking slightly worried.

"How is this possible?!" Pyrrha asked wide eyed.

Jaune was silent, pondering her question. "Maybe...this is the world that is connected to ours?" Jaune theorized.

"It could be...but what about Violet? The statues told all of us that there wasn't any faunus in this world." Ren pointed out.

They stood silently for another moment, pondering what was going on.

"Maybe...we should just worry about this later." Pyrrha suggested.

"Yeah!" Nora voiced her agreement. "We can worry about it when we're at the apartment."

Ren and Jaune nodded, not seeing anything wrong with their logic. So their journey to the apartment continued as they looked back at the directions and started walking. Five minutes later, the map led them to a stairway that goes underground, a sign above it saying that this was a subway. They went down the flight of stairs that ended when they entered what looked like a tunnel where a few people were waiting for the train to come.

"If says on the directions that if we take the subway train to the next stop, we should be near the apartment." Ren said, reading the directions that he was holding.

"Hey, it beats walking all the way there." Jaune said with a shrug. Before they could walk towards where the train would be in a few minutes, six thuggish looking men walked up to them with menacing grins.

One of them, with a purple Mohawk, pulls out a knife and holds it threateningly towards them.

"This is how this will work." The gruff sounding thug said, apparently the leader of the group. "You give us all your money and everything will fine."

Another thug walks up to stand next to the first thug, this one with short brown cropped hair.

"You lot better do what he says, or Dare is going to paint the subway walls with your blood." The brown haired thug threatened.

Ren shook his head, not very impressed by their threat and rubbed his face.

"Look, we really don't have the time for this. So how about you gentlemen get out of our way and let us through?" Ren asked with a stern tone. Dare didn't take to kindly his tone and slipped his knife into his pocket and pulled out a handgun.

"Snobby little punk!" The Mohawk wearing leader growled. "Let's see you talk to me like that when I put a bullet in your throat!" The other five punks pulled out their guns, two of them wielding a handgun like their leader while the other three pulled out revolvers and trained them on Ren.

"Feeling lucky punks!?" The leader barked, ready to shot at a moment's notice. Ren and Pyrrha looked disinterested despite the guns pointing at them while Jaune glared at the six thugs. Nora simply grinned.

"Oh goody, it's fun time!" Nora exclaimed, causing the thugs to falter in confusion.

"...What?" One of the thugs next to Dare said before Nora smashed her fist into the side of his face, sending him flying into the wall of the subway station. The remaining thugs could only stare in horror at their friend's crumbled and groaning form.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" The cropped haired thug yelled as Ren front-flipped over him and chopped him on the neck with his hand, knocking him out cold.

The remaining thugs shook away their shock and where about to raise their guns, only for Pyrrha to throw Akouo, her shield at one of the thugs in the back. It smacked the side of his head and bounced towards the thug next to them disorientating them and causing them to stagger then fall, leaving Dare and the last unnamed thug left.

Getting desperate, the unnamed thug, who had shaggy blonde hair, looked around for something to use to their advantage. He quickly spotted a young women that had just entered the subway and smirked. He rushed over to her, much to Team JNPR's confusion, and grabbed the women before she could runaway. He wrapped his arms around her tight and pointed his gun at her head, making her to stay still in fright.

"Alright you runts, if you try anything funny and the broad gets it!" The thug threatened, using one of the oldest techniques in villain history. The team, having no choice, lowered their weapons.

The thug smirked. "Good...now drop your weapons or I'll blow her brain matter onto the walls."

They complied to his wishes and dropped their weapons as the four knocked out thugs got back up. Five of the thugs started to converge on them, their guns by their sides. Pyrrha was already thinking of a plan of attack, planning on using her Polarization semblance to wrench the guns out of their hands when they got closer.

Dare chuckled as he raised his gun towards Ren's face. "You just couldn't have given us the money could you?" He asked the magenta eyed teen. "And now, you all get to die like dogs." The other four thugs raised their guns and chose a target.

Before they fired and Pyrrha could enact her plan, the cropped haired thug stiffened when he saw a shadow overshadowing him. He slowly looked behind his shoulder, only for his eyes to widen in horror as he made struggling noises.

"CRAP! IT"S HIM BOSS!" The thug yelled, turning completely as raised his gun towards the thing he's so afraid of.

Dare rolled his eyes and faced the thug. "Him who you bozos?" Dare irritably asked. Before his henchman could form an answer, the sound of a gunshot reverberated throughout the station. A moment later, the thug's head exploded as a bullet went through it. The thug fell backwards with a look of horror forever etched on his face.

The gang yelled in shock as they turned towards where their fallen comrade was looking towards, their expression also turning into horrified expression as they saw what killed him. It was a man wearing a black fedora, a open black jacket that went down to his ankle and a white shirt that had a large read A written on it, black pants and dress shoes. On his hands were black gloves, a smoking gun gripped by his right hand. His face was covered with a white mouth mask that covered the bottom portion of his face and black-tinted sunglasses that hid his eyes. His hair was the same black color as most of his outfit.

The masked man stared at the thugs ominously, unnerving the remaining five members of the group.

"Who the hell are you?!" Dare growled, trying to hide his nervousness.

"You know who I am." The darkly clad man replied without hesitation.

Dare clicked his tongue in irritation. "Yeah, like I would know a weirdo that dresses like you." Dare snapped sarcastically.

"H-he's Agent-A!" The thug that Nora smacked towards the wall stuttered out. Dare looked towards his underling, looking like he was about to pistol whip him.

"Agent-A? He's nothing but a myth to cover up a few murders of high ranking criminals and thugs." Dare spat.

The man now dubbed Agent-A wasn't fazed. "I assure you, I am no myth." Agent-A told them, no hint of lying in his voice. "If you don't drop your guns now, I'll kill you. If you do drop your guns, I'll kill you mercifully." Agent-A stated.

"So you're just going to kill us either way?!" The thug Nora took down yelled, panicking even more.

"Yes." Agent-A bluntly answered. "I know everything you and your group has done George. Your little messed up group has done. I have one rule and you six didn't even hesitate in breaking it."

"And what rule is that?" The shaggy haired thug asked nervously, his hold of the women loosening.

Agent-A grinned under his mask. "The answer is simple Jerry, all six of you took the lives of the innocent. And when you do that, I take your life as payment for your sins." Agent-A aimed his gun dead center of Jerry's head.

Jerry's fear finally got the better of him. He released the women he was holding hostage and made a mad dash towards the exit. Agent-A chuckled at the easy target.

"An eye for an eye my friend." Agent-A quoted before firing his gun, the bullet whizzing in the air before finding its place in Jerry's throat. Jerry collapsed and started gurgling blood as he held his throat. After a few moments Jerry's body went limp, no longer capable of sustaining life.

Team JNPR looked at the bloody display with wide, unblinking eyes.

"He...just killed them." Ren said, stunned beyond believe.

Pyrrha absently nodded. "And he did it without hesitation, it's like he has no regrets in ending their lives."

Nora was holding onto Ren's arm like a life line. "So...horrifying." Nora said in a small voice that didn't match her, shaking like a leave.

"Oh Oum!" Jaune said with shaking legs.

They had never seen someone kill someone else with so little remorse.

Dare growled and charged at Agent-A. "I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A-" Dare's yelling died when the next three bullet that were fired from Agent-A's gun hit Dare in his lungs and heart. The leader of the gang slide and rolled on the ground, stopping died right at the mask man's feet.

The last remaining half of the group decided that now was the time to run away and they all ran in different directions, trying to confuse him. But just like with Jerry, Agent-A wasn't willing to let any of them to leave alive. He leaped towards the thug that was heading towards Team JNPR, but aimed his gun that was running towards the same exit that Jerry tried earlier. One shot later, the thug went down with a new hole in the back of his head. Agent-A then landed on the other thug and grabbed his neck and with a mighty jerk, snapped the thugs neck like a twig.

He released the now deceased thug and ran towards the final thug, who was running towards the track. With his superior speed, Agent-A grabbed the thug by the scruff of his shirt and smirked when he heard the noise of the incoming subway train.

"Looks like your rides here." Agent-A said before Judo tossing the last thug towards the tracks. The thug only had a second to turn his head to see the incoming train before it slammed into him, causing his body to erupt in a shower of blood that painted the front of the train.

Team JNPR felt really sick at the brutality of the last thug's death.

"What do we do?" Ren asked his teammates.

"I don't know, what should we do Jaune?" Pyrrha asked turning towards their leader for answers.

Jaune didn't immediately answer, thinking hard about their next course of action. "I don't know, this guy said he only kills people that had killed innocent people. I think we can trust him." Jaune said, sounding sure about his decision. Ren wasn't so sure about Agent-A.

"Are you sure? He just shot four men, broke another one's neck, and tossed the sixth one into an oncoming train. " Ren listed the gruesome ways the thugs were killed in front of them. "How does that inspire any form of trust?"

"I hope you're all awake that I can hear you." Agent-A suddenly said from his spot next to the train tracks.

Jaune started to panic. "Oh crap!"

Agent-A raised his arms as a sign of peace. "It's alright Mr. Arc, I'm not going to harm you." Agent-A assured him.

Jaune breathed in relieve before realizing that he never gave the man his name. "How did you know-"

"I know everyone who lives in and enters this city. There is no one within the city boundaries that I do not know." Agent-A explained before turning towards the exit. "Now if you excuse me, I'll take my leave."

Ren looks down for a moment before glaring at Agent-A's back. "Why did you do it?" Ren asked the masked man, causing him to stop to regard Ren's question with a raised eye.

"Why did I do what?" He asked the teen, not understanding what the boy meant.

"You killed those men." Ren elaborated. "Why?"

Agent-A masked eyes bore into Ren's magenta colored eyes. After a moment, the masked vigilante finally answered "Because they deserved death." the black clad man simply stated.

"Are you even sure that all six of them actually killed people?!" Pyrrha interjected.

Agent-A narrowed his eyes. "Just like how I know everyone in the city, I know everything that happens within it. So believe me when I say that they killed some good people." Agent-A turned towards the exit and walked away from them. "Now...I will be taking my leave, pray that we do not meet again." Agent-A paused for a moment before glancing over his shoulder. "Also, I suggest that you get on the sub before it leaves." Without another word, Agent-A walked away from them.

"Now hold on!" Ren yelled before the lights went out. When they turned back on a moment later, the masked vigilante was already gone.

They looked around frantically, hoping to find the vigilante but to no avail.

"So...that just happened." Jaune bluntly said.

Pyrrha looked around at the six men that were killed and cringed. "I wish we didn't have to see all this."

"I agree." Ren said with a frown. "With how this man works, I'm not completely sure if we just made a friend or foe."

Jaune bend over and picked up his shield and sword. "There's no point talking about it now. We should just get on the train and just forget about this and our other troubles until we're at the apartment." Jaune stated.

Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora nodded in agreement.

"That sounds like a sound plan." Ren said with a nod.

"I'm good with that." Pyrrha agreed

"Yeah." Nora said in a tired tone, still subdued from witnessing the carnage minutes before.

The team quickly made their way into the train as the police arrived to investigate the crime scene. They spent the hour long ride in silence before they stopped at station they were supposed to get off at. After leaving the train the group made it topside, luckily without running into any more muggers, and continued their search for the apartment. Luckily the walk only lasted only five minutes before they finally arrived at the address that was written on the directions Ed gave them.

"Looks like this is the place." Jaune said as they entered the multi-floor structure.

"It looks nice." Pyrrha commented, quickly examining the green exterior as Jaune opened the door and held it open for his teammates and followed them when they were all through.

They entered a lobby with a grey tile floor and light green walls. At the counter was a man wearing a green dress shirt and a name tag with the name 'James Henderson' on it. James smiled when he saw the four approach him.

"Good evening." James greeted. "Welcome to the Internal Green Apartment Complex, how may I help you?"

"Yes, a mister Edward Charles sent us here." Jaune told the apartment employee. James laughed deeply

"Ah, I see. How are my old friend and his daughter?" James asked.

"They're both doing good, our friend Nora gave her quiet a fright." Ren told him.

Nora pouted. "I couldn't help it! She was so adorable and huggable!" Nora exclaimed.

Ren rolled his eyes while Nora poked him.

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Anyway, we were wondering if we could stay in one of the rooms here for the night."

"Oh course, anything for a friend in common." James told them as he grabbed a key from the key rack behind him.

James handed Jaune the keys, which he gratefully took.

"Your room is number 747 on floor 4. Please enjoy your stay." James told them.

"Thanks you for this." Jaune thanks him before his group headed towards the elevator. They went inside and waited for the door to close behind them. Nora saw the buttons on the elevator console and grinned devilishly, leaning towards it to press all the button only to be stop by Ren.

"Please Nora, not now." Ren pleaded. Nora stood back straight up and folded her arms, pouting childishly for being stopped from having fun. Ren rolled his eyes and smiled. He was glad that Nora was doing better after the incident with Agent-A and the muggers.

Pyrrha pressed the fourth floor button, activating the elevator as it went up. The moment that the elevator stopped and the door opened, they walked out of the elevator and walked down a hallway filled with doors until they found Room 747. They entered the room to see a moderately sized living room with a kitchenette on the other side of the living room. On the right and left wall, were two doors that they assumed led to a bathroom and a bedroom.

"This seems really homely." Jaune commented as he walked around, examining the room.

"That's true." Ren agreed.

"We should probably get to bed." Pyrrha suggested, feeling the prickles of sleep in her eyes.

Nora immediately showed her objection by running towards the sofa and landed in a sitting position. "No, I want to watch TV!" Nora exclaimed giggling while she bounced up and down on the seat cushions.

Pyrrha frowned. "Nora, we need to-"

"Just let her watch TV, she'll fall asleep within 10-20 minutes at most." Ren interrupted, knowing his childhood friend well enough to know how this would end.

Pyrrha stared at Ren for a moment before sighing, showing that she was giving in. "Fine."

"YAY!" Nora yelled with a grin as she grabbed the remote from the coffee table in front of her and pushed the power button. She was disappointed when the first thing that was on was the news channel.

"Hello, this is Steven Tremors, and this is channel 18 news. An hour ago, police responded to calls describing a disturbance at the subway station on Falton Street. When they arrived, they were met once again with the bloody remains of six infamous muggers that's been terrorizing the area for weeks. Sources claims that this was the work of the vigilante, Agent-A."

"Once again? How long has he been doing this?" Ren voiced his question.

"Not much is known about this mysterious, brutal vigilante, but what is known about him is that he is known to kill criminals that committed murder on innocent people." The reporter paused as an image of a giant of a man wearing a blood red suit and a demonic oni mask. "In other news, the crime lord Vincenzo is still on the loose and wreaking havoc on the populous of the city. If anyone has any information at all, we urge you to contact the authorities immediately."

"That guy is huge!" Jaune exclaimed in shock. This man was bigger than even Junior. The reporter, who previously had a stony expression, smiled.

"But enough of the bad news, let's talk about some good news." The news reporter said in a lighter tone. "The history museum recently claimed a artifact that they discovered mere hours ago in the outskirts of town and will be displaying at the museum." The screen cuts to footage of an elderly man dressed in a brown suit standing next to a glass case. What was in the case shocked the team to the core.

"It's the relic!" Ren stated in surprise.

"How are we going to get it now?" Pyrrha wondered, feeling a knot of hopelessness form in her stomach.

Everything seemed bleak as Jaune closed his eyes in thought. "Alright everyone, this might make things a bit more complicated for us, but at least we know where it is now and that it's save." Jaune told them confidentially. Jaune's words managed to alleviated their worry.

"Your right Jaune." Pyrrha said, smiling at her leader and crush. "That makes all this sound a little less troubling."

"Yes, and we can plan how we're going to get it out of there." Ren stated, also smiling at Jaune.

Jaune couldn't help but feel pride swell up inside him, happy that he was able to make them feel better. "Right, so do any of you have an idea on what to-" Jaune was interrupted by the sounds of snoring. The three turned towards the source to see Nora passed out on the couch, a thin line of drool pouring from her mouth.

The three couldn't help but smile at their sleeping friend.

"...maybe we can start planning tomorrow." Jaune said, getting nods of agreement from Ren and Pyrrha. They went their separate ways to find somewhere to sleep, not knowing that at that moment, something was happening that will make things even more difficult for them.

-Museum-

Two security guards were making their rounds when they bumped into each other in front of the scale and started to converse with each other.

"Howdy there Luke, so do you have any plans for after work?" Tom, one of the security guards, asked Luke.

"Yeah Tom, I plan on visiting my wife and son before I head home to sleep." Luke explained. "How about you Tom?"

Tom shrugged. "Same old, same old." Tom said before they heard a loud breaking noise. The two guards were in high alert.

"What was that?!" Luke asked, taking out his baton from his holster.

"I don't know, but we should check it out fa-" Tom's words died when a card with a picture of a sword embedded itself into his throat, causing blood to gush out as he fell face first into the floor, dead. Luke's eyes widen in horror.

"TOM!" Luke yelled not sensing the figure that was hiding in the shadows a few feet away.

"Do not worry, you'll be with him soon." The figure said before he threw another card with a sword on it at the guard. Tom could only crane his neck a few inches towards the figure before the card impaled him in the head, killing him instantly.

The figure chuckled dementedly as he walked towards the relic, stepping into the light to reveal a lanky man in a skintight grey morph suit with a 10 written on his chest. He wore a mask that was half black and half white with the black part having a rage filled frown while the white part had a sinister smile. Around his waist was a belt that had 10 slots that held a deck each.

The bizarrely dressed man shook with barely repressed laughter as he examined the scales.

"Looks like another steal for Mr. 10, master thief." the now dubbed Mr. 10 said to himself as he laughed manically.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Master Thief

Jaune was sleeping peacefully on the bed in the room he was sharing with Ren while snoring. He was in the middle of a dream where he was a great hero and Weiss was fawning over him when Ren, who woke up almost an hour before, barged into the room and rushed over to Jaune to wake him up.

"Jaune wake up!" Ren said loudly as he shook Jaune. "Something terrible has happened!" Jaune groaned but didn't wake up.

"Five more minutes." Jaune muttered under his breath, trying to get back to his wonderful dream.

This caused Ren to shake Jaune more violently. "It's the relic Jaune! It's been stolen!" Ren exclaimed, finally getting Jaune to bolt up from the bed.

"WHAT!?" Jaune yelled as he jumped out of bed and rush to the living room with Ren following behind where Pyrrha and Nora were watching the news channel intensely, their faces contorted in shock.

"Last night, two security guards at the Historic Museum were murdered and the scales recovered earlier yesterday were stolen." The newscaster said before continuing. "Oddly enough, the scale was apparently the only object the only thing that was stolen. At the scene of the crime, police officers found two card with swords printed on them were found imbedded in the neck of security guard, Tom Faults, and in the head of Luke Skylar. Within the case where the artifact was being displayed, they also found a card with the number ten on it. Based on this evidence, police deduced that the culprit is none other than the infamous thief, Mr. 10."

A picture of Mr. 10 appeared on the screen, allowing Team JNPR to see the bizarrely dressed man that stole the relic before they could get it.

"Mr. 10 is a highly skilled thief that has stolen millions of dollars worth of museum pieces around the world. If anyone has any information about his whereabouts, please contact the authorities. In other news-" At this point, Jaune used the remote to turn the TV off, a grim look on his face.

"Okay guys, I know that this looks bad and all-" Jaune's attempt to put the whole event into perspective as interrupted by Ren, who gave Jaune a deadpan stare.

"The piece of the scales that we were going to try to get was stolen by oddly dressed man who apparently uses cards as his weapons." Ren summarized.

"And we have no idea how to find him or the scale." Pyrrha added.

Jaune visibly deflated, sighing as his shoulders slumped.

"Okay, it's really, really bad." Jaune admitted. "At least things can't get any worse."

Just as he said that, there was a knock at the door.

"Room Service!" A man called from the other side of the door. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren looked confused.

"We didn't order anything?" Ren said in confusion as Nora jumped off the couch happily.

"YAY! MY PANCAKES!" Nora yelled as she rushed over to the door and opened it, to reveal a man in a bellhop outfit with a metal cart with plates filled with pancakes.

Ren's eyes narrowed. "You ordered room service?" Ren asked the orange haired girl.

"Yup." Nora chirped before diving into the pancakes and started eating them with gusto.

The team rolled their eyes as the bellhop cleared his throat. "That will be two-hundred thirty eight dollars and fifty four cents please." The bellhop said, holding his hand out expectedly.

" two-hundred thirty eight dollars and fifty four cents?!" Jaune exclaimed. "Why would pancakes be so expensive?!"

Their not." The bellhop shrugged. "Your friend ordered over 100 stacks of pancakes, we would have had them here earlier but we ran out of flour after the first 40 stacks and we had to get more." He explained.

Pyrrha's eyebrows furrowed as she examined the stacks he brought in. "Those don't look like 100 stacks to me." Pyrrha couldn't help but comment. Nora paused and swallowed the pancakes that was in her mouth before rushing out the room and dragged in a couple more carts filled with pancakes.

Pyrrha, Ren, and Jaune could only silently stare at the sheer amount of pancakes with wide eyed filled with disbelieve.

"Um...never mind." Pyrrha said after a few minutes of silence.

-Meanwhile, in a club 30 miles away-

It was during the morning rush hour and the entire building was pack with people who were dancing, laughing, and socializing. But in the V.I.P room above the dance floor, a man was sitting at a long table in a black leather chair while being hidden in the shadows. He was casually smoking a cigar while looking around the room absentmindedly.

"This place reminds me of the places I would hang out at back home." The man reminisced, taking a long drag of the cigar and puffing out the smoke. "It's sure is cozy, isn't it Mr. 10?" The man asked, not moving a muscle as a card dropped from the ceiling and exploded, revealing Mr. 10.

"It's not really to my tastes, but it doesn't really matter." Mr. 10 shrugged.

"Did you bring it?" The man immediately asked, getting right to the point of the meeting. Mr. 10 grinned under his mask as he reached into a small bag he had tied to his belt and reached into it, pulling out the scales he stolen during the night.

"Does this answer your question?" Mr. 10 asked rhetorically. The man leaned forwards towards the light, revealing the smirking face of Roman Torchwood.

"I believe it does." Roman answered gleefully.

Mr. 10 chuckled. "I have to say, getting this was so easy. They only had two guards protecting it and I only needed to use two sword cards." Mr. 10 stated.

Roman's smirked widen. "Believe me, I know." Roman agreed. "So how about handing me the relic?" Roman reached for the scale, only for his hands to be slapped away.

"Tsk tsk tsk. Payment first Mr. Sticky Fingers." Mr.10 told him, wigging his finger back and forth as if he was scolding a child. Roman rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket and pulled out a check. He hands it to Mr. 10, who lightly grabs it and gives him the scales in return.

"Thank you, it's been a pleasure working with you kind sir." Mr. 10 told Roman before pulling out a portal card and tosses it at the wall, creating an oval shaped portal that leads somewhere else. The card based villain made his way to the portal and was about to leave before being stopped by Roman.

"Hold up one moment." Roman said, stopping Mr. 10 right at the portal. "I was wondering if you would, by any chance, be interested in joining our organization." Roman asked.

This peeked Mr. 10's interest. "Oh? And what does your organization do?" Mr. 10 questioned the Remnant criminal.

"Basically I, along with few of my allies, are gathering various high end villains around the world for something big." Roman explained. "So are you interested?"

Mr. 10 lifted his hand to his chin and cupped it, scrunching his face and humming in though before shrugging. "Meh, sorry pally, but I don't really play well with others. Plus, I have a very full schedule, have a few targets that I need to hit up and all."

Roman raised his eyebrow as he flicked some ash from his cigar. "Such as?" Roman asked him.

"Its another museum that has a really shiny diamond with my name on it." Mr. 10 explained, shivering in anticipation.

Roman couldn't help but stare at him unblinkingly. "You...really like doing this don't you?"

"I live for it." Mr. 10 replied. "Bye now." The criminal waved goodbye and entered the portal, which immediately closed once he was through.

"...weirdo." Roman said when he was finally alone. Seconds later, Junior opens the door and looks at Roman with concern.

"Are you sure it was a good idea letting him go like that?" Junior voiced his concern, apparently listening in on their conversation.

Roman smirked. "Don't worry, he'll return eventually. That I'm sure of." Roman assured him. "Now...how is your search going?"

Junior cringed. "It's not going well." Junior told the bower hat wearing man. "I sent the twins out to search for anyone we could get our hands on, but all we were able to get was information on a potential candidate."

"And?" Roman asked impatiently. "Who did you find out about?"

"Someone called Android-A."

"Android-A?" Roman asked.

"Yes, apparently he's a robotic version of Agent-A, the man who kills criminals in this city." Junior stated.

"Any idea who build him?" Roman curiously asked.

Junior shook his head. "No one knows who built him, but what we were able to gather, he was constructed in a place called Japan." Junior explained.

Roman eyes brightened, already thinking of how this Android-A could be useful to them. "Interesting." Roman stated.

"So should we try to recruit him?" Junior asked his leader. Roman took what was left of his cigar and walked over to an ashtray. He stuck the still burning end into the ashtray and twisted it, putting it out.

"Yes." Roman finally answered, smirking at the prospect of gaining a promising recruit.

-Back at the apartment.-

Team JNPR was standing in the hotel lobby, being scolded by a less then pleased James.

"I said that you for can spend the night here for free! I said nothing about getting free food, especially of that amount!" James told them angrily.

The team flinched. "Look, we're very sorry sir, but we really don't have the money to pay for those pancakes." Jaune told him, sending a quick glare at Nora, who looked back nervously.

James sighed and rubbed his face. "I'm sorry, but I just can't let this slide. You all will have to make up for those pancakes." James told them.

"How about we get jobs and pay off the money we owe you?" Ren offered, thinking quickly on a way that will solve the problem.

James blinked at the suggestion then hummed in thought. "It depends on how fast you can get the money." James said. "How would I be able to make sure that you four don't skip town and don't pay up?"

Ren closed his eyes, thinking up a scenario. "How about Nora and I work here to work off our tab? That way you can make sure that you get your money?" Ren suggested.

James thought it over then smiled, liking that idea. "That works for me."

Jaune was overjoyed that they were able to settle this peacefully. "Then it's settled." Jaune said.

James held his hand out and shook Ren's and Nora's hands. "Welcome to the hotel business." James greeted. "I'll be right back with your uniforms." James left them to find uniforms that would fit them, leaving the group alone.

"I'm glad that we got that all figured out." Jaune said with a sigh of relieve.

"Yes, but if a certain someone didn't feel the need to order all those pancakes then we wouldn't be in this mess." Ren stated, glancing towards Nora who rubbed her head sheepishly.

"Come on Ren, don't be like that. I could have been worse." Nora said, getting Pyrrha to cock a eyebrow.

"How so?" Pyrrha felt the need to ask.

"I could have ordered 500 stacks like I originally wanted." Nora answered.

The trio paled when James came back with two uniforms.

"Here you two are, there's a dressing room you can change into your new uniforms over by the side." James said before turning towards Jaune and Pyrrha. "As for you two, I need you two to do an errand for me."

"Where to?" Pyrrha questioned James, wanting nothing else but to pay off the bill as soon as possible.

James reached into his pocket and took out a business card. "I need you two to go to this electronic shop and talk to the manager; we seem to be having a problem with our network system." James told them.

"Alright, we can do that." Jaune said as he took the card from James.

"We'll get it done as fast as possible." Pyrrha told him.

"Have a safe trip." James said happily as the duo left the hotel and headed towards the electronic shop.

-Meanwhile, at the Ed's Electronics-

The manager of the store, who was none other then Edward Charles, was having difficulty with a large, obese man with a mustache who was yelling at him.

"Your blooding TV doesn't work!" The man yelled, his face starting to turn purple. "I spent three sodding hours trying to getting it to work! I demand a refund!"

Ed Charles was trying his best to remain calm and help the disgruntled customer.

"I told you before sir the TV isn't broken, you just don't have the right cables for it." Ed tried to explain. Unfortunately, his explanation only made the man angrier.

"Don't lie to me! You're just saying that so I would have to buy more of your useless stuff!" The man exclaimed angrily, so sure that the man in front of him was trying to rip him off.

Ed shook his head. "Sir, I have no reason to do that to you." Ed told him. "If you want, I can have one of my employees help you with it."

"NO!" The man yelled. "You will give me a refund of else!"

Ed's eyes narrowed at the threat. "Or else what?" Ed asked. Before the fat man could answer, the store door opened. The two looked towards the door to see that Jaune and Pyrrha was entering the store.

"Hello, we were hoping that you could-" Jaune stopped mid sentence when he saw Ed. "Ed? You work here?"

Ed couldn't help but smile. "I don't work here Jaune, I'm the manager." Ed explained.

Jaune's eyes sparkled. "That pretty cool."

The customer wasn't pleased about being ignored. "ENOUGH!" The man reared his fist back and decked Ed in the face, sending him to the floor. Before Pyrrha and Jaune could react, the large man reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun.

"YOU ALL BETTER BLOODY STAY DOWN AND BE QUIET OR I WILL BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT!" The mad customer roared.

Jaune, not wanting anyone to get hurt, decided to be the mediator.

"Sir, please calm down. I'm sure that you don't really want to do this." Jaune said as he slowly approached the armed man with his hands raised. The man wasn't amused and fired a shot near Jaune's feet, making him freeze up in fear.

"Shut up or I'll hit you next time." The man warned. Unbeknownst to everyone, Ed allowed the deranged man to hit him and let him think he knocked Ed out. In reality, Ed was using everyone's ignorance to give himself time to crawl towards a black suitcase under the counter. He opened it and pulled out a set of clothes and guns. His eyes hardened as he gazed at a white shirt with a red A sewn on it.

"Time to suit up." Ed said as the commotion was continuing above him.

Pyrrha and Jaune were at a loss as the other store occupants dropped down, hoping not to get shot. Jaune mentally cursed. 'It's just like with those muggers!' Jaune thought angrily as he glanced at the civilian's terrified faces. 'We couldn't do anything to stop them when they took that woman hostage and we can't stop this guy without him potentially killing someone.' As Jaune tried to think of a way out of this, the fat man began to talk.

"Alright, when that piece of trash wakes up, he's going to-" Just then, Agent-A leapt from behind the counter and planted his hand on top of it. Using his momentum, the masked vigilante swung his body and slammed his foot into the side of the obese man's head, knocking him onto the floor with a loud thump.

"He won't be helping you with anything." Agent-A told the criminal as jumped off the counter and landed right next to the downed man.

While everyone was looking at the large man's sprawled body in awe, Pyrrha was eyeing Agent-A with suspicion.

"Where did you come from?" Pyrrha asked him.

"I have my ways." Was the darkly clad man's immediate response as he watched the downed man's attempts to get up. Without mercy, Agent-A stomped down on the man's head, smashing his face into the floor and breaking the man's nose.

"Did that hurt?" Agent-A asked rhetorically. The larger man's response was incomprehensible due to his broken nose and his words being muffled by the floor. "I'll take that as a yes." Agent-A proceeded to grab the man's arm and twisted it until a sickening crack to be heard, followed by the fat man's loud screams of pain.

"You placed the people in this store in danger, all because you were too stupid to figure out ho to work your television, how pathetic." Agent-A stated as he gave the low life's arm another twitched, electing another painful howl from the man under him. Pyrrha had enough at this point.

"STOP!" Pyrrha stepped in. "Can't you see that he's already beaten?!"

Agent-A stopped long enough to look up and glare into the red-head's eyes. "Why? He was willing to harm people over something so petty." Agent-A asked her. It was Jaune that stepped forward.

"Yeah, but that doesn't give you the right to torture someone like this." Jaune told him firmly. "I'll admit that I really don't know how things work here, but I'm sure there is a thing called the justice system that takes people like him to court and punishes them fairly."

Agent-A stares at Jaune blankly for a moment before shaking his head in dismay. "You just don't get it do you kid? There are two sides to the world, the innocent and the guilty. The innocent are to be protected while the guilty must be brutally stopped by any means, even if it means taking their lives." Agent-A explained before pulling out his gun and pointing it at the back of the larger man's head, making him sweat in fear.

"P-please don't k-kill me!" The man begged but to no avail.

"This mess was of your own creation you fool." Agent-A said coldly, cocking his gun as he prepared to execute the fat man.

"ENOUGH!" Pyrrha exclaimed, tapping into her Polarization semblance and focusing on the gun. Agent-A felt his gun starting to j*** towards Pyrrha and looked at it curiously before it was wrenched from his grip and flew towards Pyrrha, who grabbed in easily. After witnessing the phenomenon, the vigilante hummed in interest.

"I see...you're a superhuman." Agent-A said with understanding. "I thought I felt something was off with you and your friends."

Jaune, not knowing what he was talking about, quirked his eyebrow. "Superhuman?"

Agent-A stepped off the large man, his attention towards the duo before him. "Very well, I'll let this scum live for now." Agent-A assured them before taking a few steps back. He carefully flipped a switched that controlled the power in the store, causing the store to go dark as the lights went off.

They attempted to look around but it was difficult because it was too dark to see and they didn't have the night-vision that Faunus had. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the lights finally turned back on and Agent-A was yet again gone.

"How is he doing that?" Jaune asked Pyrrha.

Pyrrha thought to herself. "Maybe it's his version of a semblance." Pyrrha theorized.

At that moment, Ed got up and moaned as he rubbed the sore spot that the angry customer punched, acting like he just regained consciousness.

"Ooow, what happened?" Ed moaned.

Jaune and Pyrrha looked happy to see him.

"Oh Ed, your alright!" Jaune said excitedly. "Your angry customer punched your lights out then that creepy vigilante showed up and tried to kill him." Jaune answered. Ed frowned, his face twitching from the comment about him being creepy.

"I...see." Ed said, trying to hide his distain. Pyrrha noticed the twitching.

"Are you alright Ed?" Pyrrha asked concerned.

Ed forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm just still in pain from that punch, but I'll live." Ed said. "I'll make sure to call the cops so this troublemaker can face justice. But before that, why are you two here?" Ed asked.

"Your friend James was having some technical difficulties at the hotel so he asked us to come here to get some help." Pyrrha told him, purposely leaving out the fact they owe the hotel money because of Nora's pancake addiction.

Ed nodded. 'Makes sense.' "So what seems to be the problem over there?" Ed questioned.

"James told us that there was a problem with the computer network." Jaune explained.

"Alright, tell James that I'll be over later. I have to drop my daughter off at school in a little bit." Ed told them.

Pyrrha nodded. "Okay, we will." Pyrrha said as she and Jaune headed towards the door.

"Tell Violet that we said hi!" Jaune called out as they left the shop. When the door closed, Ed mentally sighed. 'That was too close for comfort.' Ed thought as he picked up the phone to call the cops. What Jaune and Pyrrha didn't realize was that Ed wasn't wearing the same shirt that he had on when they first came in. If Ed had turned around when they were still there, they would have seen a red capital A on the back of his shirt.

'If those kids are superhuman, then this could be a problem.' Ed thought as he waited for the emergency services operator to pick up. 'They could either be allies or a threat.' After the operator answered and he called the police, Ed left the store in the hands of his assistant manager and went to his car then drove off.

While driving to his house to pick up his daughter and drop her off to school, he takes off his glasses and replaces them with sunglasses.

"Computer, is there any information on Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie?" Ed asked with a serious tone. A low beeping noise that originated for his sunglasses echoed through the car.

"Searching...Searching...There is no information about Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, or Nora Valkyrie." A monotone, computerized voice answered.

Ed's expression doesn't change. "How is that possible?" Ed calmly asked.

"There is a slight possibility that they could be either aliens, androids, or a different abnormity." The computer suggested.

Ed quickly shook his head. "There's no way that they could be androids, otherwise they wouldn't have felt so strongly about what I do. And aliens...seriously?"

"It is the only thing that I could think of that would fit." The computerized sunglasses said in defense.

"Whatever the case, I need to keep a closer eye on them." ED stated as he pulled into the driveway. "But what makes me curious about them the most is their reaction to Violet, they didn't seem surprised or shocked about her cats ears. Is it possible that they seen someone like her before?"

Ed gets out of the car as Violet runs outside and rushes towards her father, wearing a white hat on top of her head.. "DADDY!" Violet yelled happily as she hugs her father, who hugged back with a cheerful smile.

"Hello Violet, are you ready for school?" Ed questioned the five year old.

Violet frowned nervously but nodded regardless. "Yes daddy, but I'm a little scared." Violet admitted. Ed gently placed his hand on her small shoulders and gave her a assuring smile.

"You'll do just fine, and that you'll make a lot of good friends." Ed told her. "But remember to keep your hat on."

"Okay, but it's kind of itchy." Violet whined, scratching a spot on her head to illustrate her point.

"I know, but we can't let anyone see your ears. They're not ready." Ed said sympathetically, while patting her head.

Violet sighed. "Okay." She replied. Then walked towards the car and got in, buckling themselves in before making their way to the school.

-On the streets-

Jaune and Pyrrha were walking back to the hotel, trying to figure out their next plan of action.

"Now that we got that out of the way, we can focus on how to find the relic." Jaune told her.

"Yes, but we would need to find Mr. 10 first before we can get it." Pyrrha stated.

"I know, but it's not like we can just look him up on the phone book. He's a criminal that hides himself with a mask and costume, who knows how long it would take to track him down." Jaune pointed out. Pyrrha was silent for a moment before a thought went through her head.

"Well he is a master thief, so it's a matter of time before he targets another museum." Pyrrha explained.

Jaune and Pyrrha stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Well he already robbed something valuable from the city's museum, where else could he steal from?" Jaune asked the redhead. Pyrrha didn't listen, too preoccupied with looking behind Jaune, a grin on her face.

"Hey Jaune, I think I know where he's going to go next." Pyrrha told him.

"Where?" Jaune asked puzzled.

"Turn around and see." Jaune did so and realized that they just so happened to be standing in front of a different museum with a banner that said the new addition, the Devil's Heart, was going to be opening tomorrow.

"Oh." Jaune simply said before smiling in understanding. "Oh!" Jaune repeated.

"Yeah, if we sneak in when their closed tonight, then we can do a stake out and wait for Mr. 10 to arrive. Then we can get him to tell us where he took the scales." Pyrrha explained her plan.

Jaune nodded in approval. "That an like a great plan." Jaune told her excitedly. "we should get back to the hotel and tell Nora and Ren!"

With their plan in mind, Pyrrha and Jaune rushed towards the hotel, eager to tell their teammates about their plan. What they didn't know was that they would arrive to bad news.

Back at the hotel, Ren was busy mopping the floors while Nora was delivering food to the hotel patrons that ordered room service.

'This is great, at this rate we can hopefully pay off our debt within a few days.' Ren thought to himself.

The magenta eyed boy was shaken from his thought when the hotel door opened as Jaune and Pyrrha entered the building. They noticed Ren and made a beeline towards the teen.

"Hello you two, how did It go?" Ren greeted warmly.

"Well...everything was going smoothly until one of the customers decided to pull out a gun and threaten everyone because his TV wouldn't work." Jaune explained.

Ren frowned in confusion. "I'm sorry, could you run that by me again?" Ren asked.

"A man that was upset by his TV pulled out a gun and threatened to harm the other customers." Pyrrha repeated. "But don't worry, he was stopped before anyone got hurt."

Ren sighed in relieve. "That's good to hear, so was it you to that stopped him?"

Ren know something was wrong when his two teammates shifted uncomfortably. "Well...no, it wasn't us."

"Then who was it?" Ren asked, his interest peeked.

"It was...Agent-A." Pyrrha hesitated said.

Ren gave them a stony expression at the mention of the vigilante they met the night before.

"I see. So I guess that the man is currently in the morgue?" Ren asked, almost completely emotionless except for the sliver of distain that he let slip.

Pyrrha shook her head. "No, he only broke the guy's arm and nose. Luckily I was able to stop him from pulling the gun trigger with my semblance and we both were able to convince him to let the police handle him." Pyrrha told him. "But when I took his gun away, he said that we were superhumans."

"Superhumans?" Ren repeated in confusion.

"Yeah that's what he called us, but I can't figure out what he meant by that." Jaune said.

"Interesting." Ren said, the wheels turning in his head.

"Also, we think we know where Mr. 10 is going to go next." Pyrrha excitedly said.

Ren's eyes widened. "Really? Where?" Ren quizzed them.

"The museum is going to have an exhibit opening up tomorrow that we think he might try to steal tonight." Jaune told him.

"And I'm guessing that we're going to sneak in and wait for him to arrive?" Ren guessed.

The duo nodded. "We should go get Nora so we can do this together." Pyrrha said. "Where is she at the moment?"

"I believe that she was delivering some food to the other patrons, but I think she's going to be back soon." Ren said after taking a moment to think.

"Good, you stay here and continue working until she comes back while we head to the room. When she's with you, bring her to the room then we can start planning for tonight." Jaune told him.

"Got it!" Ren replied with a nod before resuming his mopping. Pyrrha and Jaune left their teammate behind and went to their room and sat on the couch, then strike up a conversation while they waited for the other half of their team.

"I have to say, this world has really weird people in it." Jaune started the conversation. "There's Agent-A, a man who willing kills criminals without hesitation, Vincenzo, a man who wears a creepy mask and looks big enough to strangle an Ursa grim with his bare hands, and then there's Mr. 10, a man who uses cards of all things for weapons." Jaune listed.

"Well to be fair, we ARE technically aliens here." Pyrrha pointed out.

"When you say it like that, it makes sense that we're the weird ones in the bunch." Jaune said with a chuckle. It was at this time that the door opened and their two teammates walked through the door.

"We're heeeeeeeeeeere!" Nora said cheerfully as she rushed over to the couch and plopped herself down in the remaining spot.

"Yes, now we can go over what we need to do." Ren stated as he sat down in a chair. Jaune face grew serious, now was the time to plan their next move.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Way to Catch a Thief

It took Jaune two hours to come up with and explain his plan to Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora.

"-And that's how we're going to do this." Jaune finally finished explaining. "Any questions?"

Almost instantly, Nora's hand shot up like a bullet being shot in the air.

"Yes Nora?"

"After we beat him, can I break his legs?" Nora asked innocently, despite the question she just asked. Jaune blankly stared at her.

"...What is with you and your obsession with breaking people's legs?" Jaune questioned her, slightly worried about the mental stability. All she could offer him was a shrug. After staring at her for a few moments, Jaune shook his head, deciding that now wasn't the time to question Nora's sanity.

"Getting back to the task at hand, I can't stress enough that we do this as stealthily as possible. It would be difficult to explain to security why we were sneaking into their museum after dark." Jaune told them.

After they nodded in agreement, Ren raised his hand. "What should we do if Agent-A shows up?" Ren asked in a neutral tone.

Jaune thought for a second and shook his head. "What would be the chances that he would be chasing after the same guy we are and would go to the exact same museum that we are?" Jaune asked the purple streaked hair teen.

"Well." Pyrrha began. "He does seem to be at every location that something goes down, like at the subway station and Ed's store." Pyrrha explained. "Plus this thief killed two guards last night, there's no way Agent-A wouldn't go after him."

Jaune considered this for a moment. "Well...maybe he'll be busy tonight or asleep while this is happening." Jaune offered.

"I really doubt it." Ren immediately rebuked, hunching over and placing his elbows on the table and folded his hands under his chin. "He seems way too serious about taking down criminals and doesn't look like a person who would sleep when there is a killer on the loose." Ren moved his elbows off the table and leaned back on the couch.

"Regardless, we should start preparing for this; this might be our only shot to get the scale piece from him." Pyrrha stated.

"She's right!" Nora exclaimed excitedly as she leapt off the couch. "We need to be nice and ready if we want to get this done right!" The team nodded in agreement, Nora's high spirit boosting their confidence as they gathered their weapons and prepared for their late night mission.

-Ed's house, at the same time-

Ed was at his desk, typing diligently on his computer as he reached for his mug of coffee. As he took a sip, his computerized sunglasses that was sitting next to his keyboard started beeping. Ed quickly placed his coffee down and grabbed his sunglasses and replaced his regular glasses with them.

"What have you found out?" Ed urgently asked, knowing that it was most likely something crime related.

"I looked through the police files and news network and found out that master thief, Mr. 10, broke into the main street museum last night and stole an item that was found late yesterday." The computer told him. "But not before killing two guards that were found at the scene."

Ed's eyes darkened at the mention of the criminal and the murders. "Well what do you know, that little rat finally decided to show himself again. Pull up information about Mr. 10 and the guards." Ed ordered.

After a few moments, the sunglasses beeped again. "Mr. 10, real name Howard Jackson: Age 27, was an acrobat for a circus until six years ago when he murdered his partner, Michele Keefer, out of jealousy due to being a superior acrobat. After months of being on the run, he met with an unknown source who gave him weaponized cards that could do various things. After that he turned towards a life of crime using a combination of the cards and his acrobat skills to steal from museums and art shows around the world."

The computer paused for a moment. "The two guards he murdered last night were Tom Faults and Luke Skylar. Tom had a wife and child in the next town over while Luke had a fiancée."

The light from the computer screen reflected off the sunglasses, hiding the glare that Ed had in his eyes.

"Howard Jackson...you just dug your grave." Ed stated apathy in his voice, knowing who he was going to be hunting down tonight.

Ed picked up the phone off his desk and pushed a few buttons for speed dial. After a few seconds of ringing, someone picked up.

"Hello?" The young female voice from the other side asked.

"Yes Maria, this is Ed. Can you pick up Violet from school later and watch over her tonight?" Ed asked the sitter.

"Alright, I can do that." Maria immediately told him. "I guess that you'll be busy at work tonight?"

"You can say that." Ed answered with a nod.

"I see, is there anything else?"

Ed paused for a moment. "Yeah, I wouldn't turn on the news tonight." Ed warned her.

This time Maria paused. "Why?" Maria questioned the older man.

"...Because I don't think you'll like what you see." Ed cryptically stated before he said his goodbye and hung up.

Meanwhile, Team JNPR was a block away from the museum. They were originally going to wait until later to sneak into the museum, but they found out that today was the day that they had free admittance into the building. Seeing an opportunity to see the layout of the building, the team decided to make a quick visit to the museum, which they were now currently entering.

The second they started looking around, they looked puzzled by the exhibits around them.

"This place is interesting." Pyrrha stated while walking towards the Egyptian exhibit which housed many different ancient artifacts, including a closed sarcophagus that she stopped in front of. "I wonder what this world was like in the past."

Jaune and Nora wasn't listening to what Pyrrha said, instead they were in a state of wonderment at what they found.

"Holy Oum! They have giant lizard bones over here!" Jaune said in excitement, having stumbled across the Dinosaur exhibit.

Nora, on the other hand, found herself at a wall that have different kinds mineral and stones, all of which were shiny. "Look at how they sparkle!" Nora said as the sun shone through the window at the right moment and hits the minerals, causing them to shine many beautiful colors, much to her delight.

"Guys!" Ren called out, getting their attention. "While everything here is fascinating, remember that we are here for a reason." Ren told them, referring to finding where the Devil's Heart was located so they can plan their ambush.

Pyrrha sighed and returned to the team. "Your right, we need to focus." Pyrrha admitted. Nora returned to the group as well with a small frown, looking back at the minerals with want. Ren notices her look and pats her on the shoulder.

"I know that you like to look at sparkly things, but right now, we have a job to do." Ren said softly.

Nora looked up at her long time friend and gave him a small smile. "Alright, let's do this!" Nora said, her spirit high again.

"Cool." Jaune said, returning from the dinosaur exhibit. "Now that we're no longer distracted, where can we find the heart?"

"I think I know where it is." Pyrrha chimed, pointing her hand in the air. Jaune rounded towards her in surprise.

"Really?! Where?" Jaune asked the red haired teen. Pyrrha lowered her arm and pointed behind him, causing him, as well as Ren and Nora to turn around to see an archway that had a sign that said 'The Devil's Heart on Display'.

"Oh...that's convenient." Jaune said out loud to himself.

The team went through the archway and entered a moderately sized room that the jewel was displayed in the middle in a reinforced glass case.

"Oh, shiny." Nora said with sparkling eyes as she attempted to get closer to it, only for Ren to pull her back.

"Stay focused Nora, remember what I said just a few moments ago." Ren sternly told her. Nora flashed him a nervous smile and stood beside him.

"So what now?" Jaune asked, ignoring Nora's antics.

Ren looked around the room and noticed quite a few places that would make good hiding places.

"I have an idea." Ren said with a thoughtful smile.

Seven hours later, the patrons of the museum was leaving as the building was preparing to close for the night. Once the doors were locked and everyone was gone with the exception of a handful the security guards, Team JNPR popped out of their hiding places.

Ren, who was hiding in one of the janitor's closets, mentally thanked Oum that none of the janitors came through here while he was hiding in the closet. As Ren silently closed the door, the trash can next to him started to shake. Moments later Nora's head emerged from the garbage, not looking pleased with a banana peel on her head. "When this is all over, I'm taking a long shower." Nora said with a frown as she plucked the discarded fruit peel off her head. Ren chuckled as he helped her climb out of the can.

At the meantime, Pyrrha dropped down the ceiling and landed masterfully on the ground. She was very glad no one bothered to look up while she was up there. Jaune shakily exited the Egyptian exhibit, having thought that the Pharaoh's sarcophagus would make a great hiding place, up until he realized that he had to lie on top of the mummified ruler of Egypt. The smell of the body would forever be etched into Jaune's poor mind.

'It's like the temple all over again!' Jaune thought to himself as he approached the group.  
"Alright, now that we are all here...what now?" Pyrrha asked the team.

"Simple, we wait until the creep arrives." Jaune told them.

At that moment, Ren's eyes wondered slightly upwards and tenses. "Guys...he's already here." Ren said in low voice, trying to stop himself from making too much noise.

"What!" Jaune whispered as the team looked up to see that Mr. 10 snuck into the building through a window. Luckily for them, he didn't notice them and made his way to the Heart.

"Honestly, these people are begging to get robbed. The lazy bums didn't even have guards surrounding the heart." Mr. 10 said to himself, stopping right in front of his soon-to-be prize, looking at the Devil's Heart like a predator to a cornered prey. "This will be easy."

The sound of someone cocking a gun and walking towards him caused Mr. 10 to freeze in place. 'Looks like someone did come here after all.' Mr. 10 thought, his mind racing. 'I could have sworn that the guards were all elsewhere unless...it's Agent-A! Of course, he's here to put an end to me. Heh heh heh, unfortunately for him, I have more than a few cards up my sleeves.' Mr. 10 grins under his mask as the footsteps stop a few feet away from him.

"I have been expecting...you?" Mr.10 words trailed off when he spun around to see something he was expecting to see, four teens with different weapons looking ready for a fight, the dark haired boy with a magenta streak pointing a weird looking gun at him.

Mr.10 stared blankly at Team JNPR as Ren glared daggers at the villain. "...Who the hell are you lot?!" Mr. 10 asked, confused about what was happening right now.

Jaune puffed out his chest in an attempt to look more intimidating. "Who are we? We are the ones who are going to beat you!" Jaune exclaimed proudly. Mr. 10 looked at simply stared for a moment before shaking his head and rolling his eyes.

"Let me guess, your four are some hero-wannabes that wants to take me down to prove yourselves?" Mr. 10 guessed. "But let me tell you four knuckles something, I'm not some third rate thief that anyone could just take down so easily." At this point, Mr. 10 turned his attention to the diamond in the case, deciding that the four teens weren't worth the effort.

"So do yourselves a favor, take those toys of yours and scram before you lot get hurt." Mr. 10 reached for the case, only for Ren to shoot a bullet inches from where the thief's hand was going to land, going through the glass case and through the other side.

Mr. 10 froze in his tracks.

"These aren't toys." Ren growled, not in the mood for his attitude.

"I noticed." Mr. 10 said, slowly turning around to face the four once again.

Pyrrha pointed her javelin at Mr. 10. "We have your surrounded, turn yourself in and tell us what you did with the artifact piece that you stolen last night!" Pyrrha demanded.

The master thief raised his eyebrow at the mention of the scale piece he lifted from the other museum. 'Does Torchwick know these brats?' Mr. 10 asked himself before sighing and lifting up his arms in surrender.

"All right, I give up. I know when I'm beaten but can we play one little game before I go to jail?"

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes. "What do you think!?" Pyrrha spat towards the villain.

"Whoa there Hot Pepper!" The card based villain exclaimed, sounding panicky at her response. "There's no need to be hostile now that were buddies now and that I gave up."

Pyrrha was about to retort before Jaune spoke up. "Alright, you can play your game." Jaune told him. "But no funny business."

If they could see his face, they would have seen the devious smirk he sent them. "Alright, there will be no high jinks from me." Mr. 10 stated as he reached into one of his many pockets and pulled out a deck of ten cards.

"Hey, Carrot Top!" The thief called out to Nora. "Pick a card, any card."

Nora beamed as she bounced over to him. "This will be fun!" Nora said happily as she reached for a card.

'You don't know the half of it.' Mr. 10 thought as she pulled a card with a spiral from his hand. She examined the card with a confused expression.

"Hey, why is there a spiral on the ca-" Nora's question was interrupted when the card started spewing smoke, coving the room in a thick wall of smoke.

"See ya dimwits!" Mr. 10 said before disappearing into the smoke.

"I can't see!" Ren yelled as he, along with everyone else, stumbled around.

"OW! MY FOOT!" Pyrrha yelled suddenly when Jaune accidently stomped on her foot.

"Sorry Pyrrha!" Jaune quickly apologized.

Moments later the smoke cleared, revealing that Mr. 10 was gone but the gemstone was still there.

"Damn it! It was a trap!" Ren cursed.

"But it looks like he left the diamond behind." Jaune pointed out. "So he might still be in the museum, I really doubt he would give up on it real easily."

"Damn right he won't." A voice rang out from above them. The quartet looked up to see that none other than Agent-A was standing next to the window that Mr. 10 used to get into the building.  
"Agent-A?! Your here!" Ren exclaimed in surprise and distain.

"Don't act so surprise to see me, you all knew I was coming." Agent-A stated as he leapt off the ledge and landed right in front of Jaune, who fell backwards with a squeak and landed on his rear end. Jaune immediately got up and brushed himself off.

"So...are you here to help us catch him?" Jaune asked, trying to pretend that he didn't just humiliate himself.

Agent- A scoffed at the question. "Capture him? I'm going to kill him and send him to hell where he belongs." Agent-A stated seriously.

"Why are you so set on killing any criminals that you meet?!" Pyrrha demanded, desiring to know what his fixation with killing criminals was about. The darkly clad vigilante leveled a glare at the elite huntress-in-training.

"Are you ignoring the fact that this man killed two guards last night? One of said guards had a fiancée while the other had a wife and son that were waiting for him to come home. Do you four think that their having a party right now? No, they are most likely mourning the loss of two loved ones at the hands of a criminal scum." Agent-A took a moment to take a breath and rub the bridge of his nose.

"That is my rule: if they kill, I kill them in return. End of discussion."

"Look, I know that you're angry about their deaths, believe me so am I. But it's wrong to kill him just like that." Jaune tried to reason with him. All he received in return was a blank glare from the gun slinging vigilante.

"I do things my way, so do me a favor and stay out of my way." Agent-A told him. Without another word, Agent-A turned the opposite direction and walked away, hoping to find Mr. 10 before he decided to cut his loss and escapes.

"Well that was a disaster." Ren said after Agent-A was gone.

"I agree." Pyrrha agreed. "If Agent-A gets to Mr. 10 before we do and kills him, then we'll might never be able to find out where he took the scale piece."

Knowing that they didn't have time, Jaune quickly came up with a plan. "Okay guys, there is only one of Agent-A and four of us. If we split up, then we can cover a lot more areas then Agent-A. and find Creepy Card Guy a lot faster." Jaune explained.

The three nodded in agreement.

"Sounds like a great plan." Pyrrha praised.

"OH OH OH! If I find him first, can I break his legs?" Nora asked while raising her hand.

Ren chuckled. "No Nora, you can't break his legs." Ren told the orange hair girl, who gave him a cute pout.

"Alright, lets catch us a crook!" Jaune said enthusiastically.

"Got it!" The three said with the same level of enthusiasm as their leader..

The four trainees went through a different archway, hoping that they can catch the criminal before Agent-A butchers him.

Nora ended up walking back into the rock and mineral exhibit during her search for the thief, only to get distracted by the shiny minerals and stones.

"They're so shiny." Nora said to herself, not knowing that Mr. 10 was on the ceiling.

When he was sure Nora was distracted, Mr. 10 dropped down from the ceiling and landed silently and gracefully behind Nora, who didn't notice that he was behind her. Mr. 10 chuckled silently before he tapped Nora on her shoulder a few times with his fingers. Nora spun around only to be to be round house kicked in the face by Mr. 10.

Nora screamed as she was sent spirally towards a display case filled with different minerals, which shattered when she made contact with it.

Mr. 10 laughed like a hyena. "What's wrong hammerhead carrot top, didn't see that one coming?" Mr. 10 taunted as Nora shook off the pain and jumped out of the broken display case and rushed at Mr. 10 with her hammer at the ready.

When she was close enough, the orange hair huntress-in-training swung her hammer at Mr. 10, who expertly dodged each attempt before back flipping away from her and quickly pulled out a card with a shield printed on it. After landing safely on the ground a few feet away, the master thief looks up to see that Nora was almost on top of him with her hammer in mid swing. Mr. 10 slaps the shield card into the ground, causing the car to morph into a wall.

When Nora's hammer made contact with it, instead of shattering it into pieces like any other wall would have, it held up against her assault.

"What the!?" Nora exclaimed in surprise. Normally walls like this would go tumbling down the moment her hammer slams into it. Without a second thought, Nora jumped backwards and switched her hammer into her signature grenade launcher and fired three grenades at the wall. The moment they hit the wall they exploded and created a cloud of dust.

With a smile, Nora lowers her weapon thinking that she just took Mr. 10 down. When the dust cleared, the wall was knocked down but Nora's eyes widened when she saw that Mr. 10 was gone.

"Where did he go?" Nora wondered as she quickly looked around. Then out of nowhere, smoke started to cover the entire area.

"Not again." Nora groaned before Mr. 10 appeared behind her and decked her in the back of her head, knocking her unconscious as she fell down like a sack of potatoes.

"Well that was easy." Mr. 10 commented as the smoke cleared. "I better take out the others brats before Agent-A finds me." Mr. 10 looks down at the unconscious Nora, and chuckled as drool dripped out of her mouth. "Just feel lucky that you're just a kid or I would have killed you by now. But if you wake up and interfere again, I will kill you and your friends without a second thought." After saying his peace, Mr. 10 jumped away from Nora, and left the exhibit, continuing his hunt for the others.

Mr. 10 leaves the exhibit to take out his next target.

Ren made his way to the Space Exhibit, carefully looking around for the elusive Mr. 10 as questions rang through his head.

"How is a simple card capable of releasing smoke?" Ren asked himself. "It doesn't make sense."

"Believe me kid, nothing in this world makes a lick of sense." Mr. 10's voice echoed thought-out the room. Ren tensed and quickly surveyed the room, finally finding Mr. 10 standing on top of a space shuttle with his bag next to his feet and his arms folded in front of his chest.

Ren aims at the crook, a glare in his eyes. "Put your hands in the air!" Ren yelled.

If Mr. 10 was intimidated, he didn't show it. "Go right ahead and shot me kid, I'm not going to stop you." The master thief told him with a shrug.

Ren clicked his teeth and fired upon the thief, only for the bullets to go right through him.

"What the?!" Ren said as he slowly approached the shuttle and jumped on top of it. He walks towards Mr. 10, who hasn't moved a muscle, and prodded him with his gun, which also went through him. Ren's confusion deepens until he looked down see a card with two stick figures, on that was solid black and the other was more transparent. Ren crouches down and picks up the card, which causes Mr. 10 to disappear.

Ren looks from the card and back to where Mr. 10 was previously. "Was...that a hologram?" Ren asked himself, not knowing that Mr. 10 was right behind him.

"Right you are pink streak!" Mr. 10 yelled when he was right by Ren's ear. Startled, Ren turned around just as Mr. 10 slapped a card with lightning bolts on the teen's head. Almost immediately, a large voltage of electricity surged through Ren, causing him to scream in pain before he passed out and fell off the shuttle and crashed onto the floor.

Mr. 10 laughs maniacally. "Two brats down, two more to go!" Mr. 10 stated as he made his way to his next victim.

Meanwhile, Jaune was cautiously searching for Mr. 10 in the Prehistoric Exhibit, taking deep breaths to remain calm and collected.

"OK Jaune, I know things look scary right now but if you can just keep calm for a few moments, I might be able to subdue him." Jaune told himself as he got closer to a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil. "I mean, how hard can it be to fight a guy that only uses cards to fight."

"Except that the cards I use aren't just any old cards." Mr. 10 said from behind Jaune. Jaune tenses as he spun around to see that the criminal he was looking for was a few mere feet away from him. In response, Jaune raised his shield in front of his chest and readied his fighting stance.

"Um..." Jaune tried to think of a way to keep him distracted long enough for him to figure out a plan. "I know that this isn't the time to ask this, but what cards do you use?" Jaune asked. Mr. 10 smiled under his mask.

"I would be very happy to explain that my boy." The thief told him. "To begin my little lesson, why don't you take a closer look at your shield." Jaune gave him a bewildered look as he did as he was told, his eyes widening when he noticed that there was a card with an image of an ear on it.

"That, my dear lad, is one of my spy cards that I slapped on your shield before I ditched you little idiots in the Devil Heart's room." Mr. 10 explained as he continued his lecture. "It allows me to listen to everything that is said anywhere near it. In fact, it's because of my handy card that I found out that Agent-A is here and that your group doesn't really get along with him." Mr. 10 paused to stare Jaune straight in the eyes. "So I would like to make an equally beneficial proposition with you."

This caught Jaune's attention, who just peeled the card off his shield. "Really? What would that be?"

"It's simple, I know that I'm too important to you lot to be killed by Agent-A, so why don't we team up and kill Agent-A? Afterwards I'll tell you where the relic you're looking for is and we all can go our merry way." Mr. 10 proposed.

Jaune stared at the criminal in shock, his mouth opened wide at what he just told him. Then anger overtook the blonde.

"Look here 'pal'! I'm not the kind of person who would kill anyone for my own gain, or join anyone who killed two people for their own greedy desires! Like I would join forces with a criminal like you!" Jaune yelled angrily, appalled that this weirdly dressed man would even think for a second that he would go through with this plan.

What Jaune didn't expect was for the card slinger to shrug dismissively. "Don't blow a gasket kid, I knew you wouldn't agree to it." Mr. 10 admitted.

Jaune's previous anger deflated. "Then why even bring it up?" Jaune questioned him, confused beyond all belief.

"Simple, I needed you to be distracted for a bit." Mr. 10 replied. Before Jaune could question him anymore, Jaune heard two beeping behind him. Jaune looked behind him to see two flashing cards with dynamite printed on them attached to each of the Tyrannosaurus Rex's legs. They started to flash increasingly faster as Jaune looked back towards Mr. 10.

"When did you-" Jaune tried to asked before the bomb cards exploded, sending bony debris towards him. Jaune quickly raised his shield in the hopes that it would be enough to survive the falling towards him. While his shield held up, a bit of the dinosaur's ribs smacked the upper part of Jaune's shield, causing it to smack him right in the forehead and knocked the blonde teen out cold.

"Well, didn't expect him to be knocked out by his own shield, but that'll do." Mr. 10 said before he headed towards the exit of the exhibit. "Now that leave the red head girl."

Pyrrha was sneaking around the Egyptian Exhibit, not knowing that she was the last member of her team that was still able to fight.

"I hope everyone else is having better luck then I am." Pyrrha mumbled to herself. She was unaware of the shadowy figure that was heading towards her from behind. When the figure was close enough, it stretched its arm over and grabbed Pyrrha by the shoulder.

To say that this terrified Pyrrha would be an understatement as she shouted and tensed up. She quickly shrugged off the hand and spun around, prepared to attack the person behind her with Milo in Xiphos mode when she saw that it was none other than Agent-A.

"Agent-A!" Pyrrha exclaimed with a blush of embarrassment tinting her cheeks red. "What are you doing?!"

"Where are your friends?" Agent-A asked urgently, ignoring her question.

"We decided to split up so we can catch Mr. 10 before you got to him." Pyrrha told him.

Agent-A's eyebrows knitted furrowed as he slowly shook his head. "That was a bad idea, Mr. 10 loves to take out his opponents one by one." The masked vigilante explained.

Pyrrha's eyes widened in fear for her comrades. "Oh my Oum, I need to get to Jaune!" Pyrrha attempted to dash out of the room, only to be stopped by Agent-A, who grabbed her wrist.

"Stay calm." Agent-A said firmly. "There is a chance that Mr. 10 only knocked them out. If that's the case, then you'll probably end up getting knocked out as well if you go rushing out haphazardly. We need to stay together if we want to beat him."

Pyrrha gave the older man a sharp look as she ripped her hand out of his grip. "Why should I trust someone like you? You would kill anyone for even the smallest of crimes. There is no way in hell that I'm going to help you with your work."

Agent-A sighed, kind of expecting that she would say that. "Look, we don't really have a choice here. We either fight together, or die together." Agent-A told her. "So choose."

Pyrrha stayed silent for a few moments, carefully thinking through her options before she sighed in defeat.

"Fine, but we will not kill him. We need him alive." Pyrrha told him.

"Why's that?" Agent-A asked his left eyebrow quirked upwards.

"That's none of your business." Pyrrha said, starting to feel very agitated. Agent-A looked at her for a moment before shrugging.

"Fine, don't tell me. I'll end up finding out on my own eventually." Agent-A stated.

As they were talking, Mr. 10 dropped from the ceiling and landed soundlessly a few feet away from them in a crouching position. He slowly stands up and tiptoes towards them, stalking them like a lion on two unexpected gazelles. When he was two feet from them, the acrobatics master reached into his card pouch and pulls out a knife card and aims it at Pyrrha's right shoulder, going for the kill. When he attempted to strike, Mr. 10 felt something grab his wrist and a moment later, felt himself being lifted off the ground before being slammed painfully into the ground, the wind being knocked from his lungs.

Pyrrha nearly jumped from her skin when Agent-A all of the sudden reached his arm behind her and threw something over her with a grunt. It wasn't until Agent-A smashed that something into the ground that Pyrrha realized that it was the master thief that they decided to work together to capture.

She wordlessly stared at the criminal for a few moments. "...How did you know that he was there?" Pyrrha asked the vigilante, taking her eyes off the groaning Mr. 10 for a moment.

"I heard him breathing." Agent-A told her as he grabbed the shoulder of the arm he swung Mr. 10 with and rotated his shoulder.

Pyrrha was surprised by this. "I didn't hear anything."

This brought an amused smile from Agent-A. "Sharpen your hearing and you'll be able to hear the lowest of sounds." Agent-A sagely told her.

At this moment, Mr. 10 leapt backwards and did a few back flips to gain some distance from his opponents.

"This isn't over yet!" Mr. 10 cackled as he pulled out another card, this one had a blue and orange oval on it. "I still have quite a few cards up my sleeves!" The master thief threw the card on the ground and created a portal that he jumped through. Before Pyrrha and Agent-A could go after him the portal closed, signally his escape.

Dread filled Pyrrha as she stared blankly at the spot Mr. 10 previously was.

"He's gone...we lost him." Pyrrha said sadly, feeling like she failed her team by letting the criminal get away. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Agent-A staring down at her.

"He's not gone yet. He most likely went onto the roof so he has more space to maneuver." Agent-A told her.

"How can you be so sure?" Pyrrha asked, her hope rising at his assurance.

"Experience my friend. When you've fought people like him for as long as I have, you tend to understand how they think and work." Agent-A explained.

"I see." Pyrrha said as she thought for a moment. "So how are we going to deal with Mr. 10 now?"

The older male pointed towards the ceiling. "We go up."

The red headed warrior looked up before looking back at Agent-A. "What if it's a trap?" Pyrrha asked.

"Of course it's a trap, did you really expect him to play fair?" Agent-A asked her back.

"Well when you put it that way, not really." Pyrrha answered.

They went back to the Devil's Heart exhibit and climbed up to the window that Mr. 10 and Agent-A used to get into the museum. Eventually they were able to make their way to the roof where they were greeted at the sight of Mr. 10 standing on the edge of the roof with his arms folded over his chest and his back towards them. Agent-A took out his gun while Pyrrha turned Milo into a rifle.

"I have been expecting you Red Head." Mr. 10 said before he turned to face them. "I hope you'll be more of a challenge then your little friends were."

Pyrrha clenched her fists angrily at the obvious taunt. Agent-A pointed his gun at the criminals head.

"Give up Howard, and I'll make it painless." Agent-A told him. Mr. 10 grinned under his mask, unfazed by the gun that was trained on his forehead.

"You can try." Mr. 10 arrogantly stated.

Agent-A leaned towards Pyrrha's ear. "Aim for his belt, it's where he keeps his cards." The dark-haired man whispered. Pyrrha responded with a nod. "Got it."

Without warning, they opened fire at Mr.10, only for him to effortlessly dodge the bullets by slide flipping out of the way. Before he landed, the criminal reached for his belt and pulled out an explosive dynamite card.

But before he had the chance to throw it, Pyrrha used her polarization semblance to j*** the card from his hand and flung it over the side of the building. Mr. 10 landed on his feet and looked up at Pyrrha in disbelieve.

"You're a superhuman?" Mr. 10 asked a the card harmlessly detonated a few meters away from them.

Pyrrha shook her head. "Again with that name! What in the hell is a superhuman?" Pyrrha desperately asked.

"Superhuman or not, I'm going to take you both down!" Mr. 10 exclaimed, ignoring her question entirely and reached for his cards, only for his belt to start shifting.

"Oh no you don't!" Pyrrha used her semblance to take his belt, which began to jolt towards her until it snapped from the strain and flew to her outstretched hand with a satisfying slap.

Mr. 10 paled under his mask. "My card! Give them back to me!" Mr. 10 demanded, feeling fully exposed defenseless without his favorite weapons.

"I don't think we will." Agent-A stated, pointing his gun at the now nervous thief. "In fact, you're not going to be leaving this roof alive." Mr. 10 raised his arms in the air, shaking slightly.

"Now now, let's not go overboard here." Mr. 10 told him, trying to defuse the dire situation he was currently in. "Maybe we can talk about th-AHHH!" His attempt to save his skin was cut short by the bullet that found its way into his right wrist, courtesy of Agent-A. Mr. 10 drops to the ground and held his bleeding hand, screaming in agony.

Without hesitation, Agent-A walks up to the whimpering Mr. 10 and hoists him up by the front of his costume to his eye level with one hand. Mr. 10 stares right in his eyes, shaking in fear, pain, and blood loss.

"Please...I beg of you, don't kill me." Mr. 10 said pitifully. The darkly dressed man didn't reply right away, deciding to remove Mr. 10's mask to reveal a man that was in his late 20's with black hair that was partially slicked back but was unkempt at the front (which reminded Pyrrha of that Mercury Black guy from Haven Academy that she sparred with not that long ago in Goodwitch's class.)

"You would beg me for mercy? Did you grant the two guards that you murdered last night any mercy?" Agent-A rhetorically asked before his eyes narrowed. "Oh wait, you didn't did you? You didn't even give them a chance to beg for mercy did you?" Agent-A used his free hand to take off his sunglasses, showing the acrobatic criminal his piercing black eyes. "Tell all the scum that I sent to hell that I said hi."

Agent-A dropped the Master Thief on the ground and slammed his foot on Mr. 10's chest, causing him to cough in pain. He takes a single bullet from his pocket and slips it in the chamber of his revolver and aims it right at Mr. 10 face, who starts screaming for his live.

"Goodbye." Agent-A said as he was about to pull the trigger on the gun and Mr. 10's live before Pyrrha grabs him by the shoulders and yanks him away from Mr. 10 and tossed him behind her.  
Agent-A grunted as he landed on the ground and threw a glare at Pyrrha, who changed Milo into Xiphos mode and was pointing it at Mr. 10's neck.

"We have you now Mr. 10." Pyrrha said, glaring down at the damasked villain. "Now tell us where you stashed the scale you stole!" The once cocky acrobat nervously eyed the blade that was almost close enough to give him a shave before looking at Pyrrha.

"Why are you brats so hell-bent on getting that scale?!" Mr. 10 said through his pain and fear.  
Pyrrha narrows her eyes as she inched the blade until it was touching his skin, showing that she was in no mood to answer his questions. "Tell me or I'll let Agent-A finish you off." To help back up her threat, Agent-A stood up and walked up to them before stopping next to Pyrrha while twirling his gun around, glaring right into Mr. 10's eyes with his black ones. The thief stared to sweat and cussed.

"Alright I'll talk!" The Mercury look alike finally relented. "I was hired to steal the damn thing!" He confessed.

"Hired?" Pyrrha asked, lowering her weapon from his neck.

This sparked interest in Agent-A. "Hired by who?"

Mr. 10 hesitated for a moment before answering. "The one who hired me was a man who called him Roman Torchwick." Pyrrha eyes widened in shock as he continued. "I don't really know that much about this guy, he just randomly appeared one day out of nowhere at one of the places I frequently visit and hired me to steal that old scale about an hour after the museum said that it was going to display it. I was going to tell him to p*** off but then he told me that he was chummy with The Devil of Crime himself, Vincenzo.

Agent-A eyes shone while Pyrrha stared at Mr. 10 in thought.

"Where is Torchwick now?" Pyrrha suddenly asked, only for Mr. 10 to shake his head. "I don't really know, after I gave him the scale and he paid me, I left. I don't know anything else."

"Interesting, where did you see him last?" Agent-A asked the thief.

"It was in a secret room above the Tartarus dance club." Was the criminal's reply.

"Interesting." Agent-A said, a look of interest flashed on his face. Pyrrha saw the look and gave him a confused look.

"Why are you suddenly so interested? Pyrrha questioned the older man.

"Because I now know that I have another criminal to bring to justice." Agent-A explained.

"And by justice, you mean coldhearted slaughter." Pyrrha stated curtly.

Agent-A was silent for a moment. "I can't really guarantee that I'll kill him. I only kill criminals who commit murder and like Howard here said, there's not much known about this person so I might have to spare him if his hands are clean of innocent." Agent-A stated. "Until I find out later that he did kill a civilian or he starts doing so."

Pyrrha stared at Agent-A in surprise. This was the first time since they met the criminal killing vigilante that he said he wasn't going to kill a criminal the second he saw them. 'Maybe he's not as bad as we thought.' Pyrrha thought to herself, happy to see something different in the older man. 'Or at the very least, he has some morals about killing.'

"Alright, I told you all that I knew." Mr. 10 nervously said, breaking Pyrrha out of her thoughts. "So if you two don't mind, I would rather go to jail then having to deal with you anymore." Mr. 10 pointed his finger at Agent-A as he finished. Agent-A stared at Mr. 10 long and hard as he thought about what to do with him. After a minute, he closed his eyes and sighed.

"...Fine, but don't think for a single moment that this means I'm going to forgive you. If I even think for a moment that you're going to start doing this again, I am going to shoot you in the knees, then the shoulders, and finally in your throat." Agent-A threatened, not sounding happy about the arrangement at all.

Mr. 10 started to sweat bullets. "U-understood." The black haired thief quickly stammered out.

Without another word, the vigilante turned away from the others and walked towards the edge of the building.

"Wait!" Pyrrha suddenly called out, causing Agent-A to stop.

"What?" Agent-A said gruffly, turning his head slightly to show that he was listening.

"Why don't we work together?" Pyrrha offered, surprising Agent-A a little. If we do that, we might be able to find-."

"It would never work." Agent-A interrupted.

Pyrrha reared back at the interruption and his answer. "Why not?"

"For one thing, I don't trust you, or your friends at all. Another thing is that I don't work with children. And finally there is the fact that I'm willing to kill when you and your group are not comfortable with taking a live, even if they deserve it, at all." Agent-A listed. "Besides, you would all only get in my way."

Pyrrha stared at Agent-A's back as he walked over to the edge of the building, silently contemplating what he told her. Her thoughts didn't last long when she saw Agent-A jump off the building and she rushed over to see if he was alright, only to see that he had vanished.

"How is he so good at disappearing?" Pyrrha whispered to herself when she heard sirens from police cruisers heading their way.

Pyrrha's eyes widened, from how loud the sirens were, they could arrive at any minute and she knew that it would be difficult to explain why where were in the museum this late if they were found.

So without a second thought, Pyrrha rushed over to Mr. 10 and picked him up then carried him over her shoulders. He yelled in irritation at being lugged around like a sack of potatoes as Pyrrha hurried down to the window they all went through and made her way to where her friends were.

Luckily for her, by the time she found them, they were already awake and were in the Devil's Heart exhibit. When she jumped from the window and landed a few feet away from them, they quickly turned towards her and were very surprised to see that she was holding Mr. 10 and how close he resembled Mercury.

"Is that Mercury?" Jaune asked, voicing the question everyone was thinking.

Pyrrha shook her head. "No, it's a bit hard to explain." Pyrrha told them. "Listen, we need to leave the museum, the police are on their way. I'll explain the rest on the way back to the hotel.

They nodded in understanding and tied Mr. 10 to a pillar before sneaking out the window just as the police arrived.

After they stealthily left the vicinity, they made their way to the hotel.

"Well I'm just glad you're safe and you were able to defeat Mr. 10." Ren said from Pyrrha's left side.

"And he's not even dead. So that means Agent-A didn't get him before you did." Nora stated from Pyrrha's right side as she threw out a victory sign with "Victory is ours!"

"Uh, actually he did." Pyrrha corrected Nora. We ended up work together to stop him and Agent-A ended up shooting Mr. 10 through his wrist."

Jaune, who was standing on the other side of Nora, winced that the thought getting shot in the wrist. He started to get woozy just from imagining the pain he would be in.

"That had to hurt." Jaune said, feeling some sympathy for the criminal despite him being knocked out by said criminal.

"Believe me, this isn't even the worst thing that happened up there." Pyrrha told them, a serious expression on her face. "I'll explain when we get to the hotel."

Everyone was silent for the most part for the rest of the journey, each one contemplating the night and the almost one sided fight they had against the master thief. Before long, they made it to the hotel and went to their room. They were unaware of a sinister meeting that was happening at this very moment.

-At the Tartarus Club-

Roman was sitting down on his comfy chair, smoking a cigar when he heard the door creak slightly open. Roman puffed out a perfect ring of smoke as he stared at the door in irritation.

"Well it's about time you twins got back here, I sent you out there hours ago!" Roman growled. "What took you so long?" He received no response from them, which irritated the Remnant born criminal even further.

"What? Aren't you two going to explain yourse-" Roman was interrupted when the door suddenly slammed open and both the Malachite sisters were hurled into the room and flew past either side of Roman and slammed into the wall, sliding down it and landing in a heap on the floor behind Roman.

In response, Roman jumped out of his chair and turned towards the now open door as a figure that looked like Agent-A calmly walked into the room. However, this figure had a grey fedora, a silver trench coat that reached to his hips with a black undershirt with a blue A on it, grey pants, and black gloves on its hands. Roman stared at its face to see that it had glowering red eyes but no nose or mouth and metallic skin.

"So, I take it that your Android-A?" Roman asked calmly, as if the mechanical person in front of him didn't just toss two of his allies into the room. The android stayed silent as its red eyes bore into Roman's.

"Not much of a talker, are you?" Roman asked jokingly, gripping his cane in his right hand and was preparing himself for a possible fight. Again, the android remained silent. Roman didn't show any signs that he cared in the slightest at the silent treatment he was getting, deciding that maybe he should do all the talking instead.

"Alright look, I don't have any reason to fight you. In fact I sent the twins that are currently snoozing behind me to you so we can have a little talk." Roman confessed. Android-A decided to react this time, walking up to the bowler hat wearing crook and lifting him up with only one hand while pulling out his gun and pointing it at Roman's face with the other. Roman frown nervously as Android-A was about to pull the trigger.

"I'll just cut to the chase then shall I?" Roman quickly said. "If my intel is correct, you were programmed with the sole mission to end Agent-A right?" Android-A slowly nodded it's head, causing Roman to smile pleasantly. "That's good because I have a deal that will benefit both of us. I give you something that will help you kill Agent-A and in exchange, you'll work with me. Does that sound like a good deal to you?"

The android continued to lift Roman up for a few moments as it silently contemplated the deal in its head. After a few second, it lowers Roman to the ground and releases him before holding out the hand that was lifting him up moments before. Roman smiled evilly at the universal sign of a done deal and gripped the outstretched gloved hand with his.

"It's a deal then." Roman said gaining a new team member that was created for a single mission.

Terminate Agent-A.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Seek and Destroy

It didn't take too long for Team JNPR to make their way back to their hotel room. Once there, Pyrrha started explaining what happened after they went their separate ways and what she learned.

"-and that's when I found you guys." Pyrrha finished explaining. Jaune, Nora, and Ren were silent as they digested this new information, their mood slightly more somber than normal while they sat on the couch. Ren was the first person to talk after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"So...Roman is in the city and already made connections with the crime lord we heard about on the news." Ren said mostly to himself. "Not only that, but he was able to get his grubby hands on the scale."

"And we don't know where he is." Nora quickly added. "And you, Jaune, and I kind of dropped the ball when it came to the whole 'catch the Card Guy' thing at the museum."

Ren sighed. "Yes, that too." Ren admitted glumly, mentally berating himself for being beaten so easily only a few hours prior and slumping on the couch.

At this point, Jaune stood up and faced his teammates.

"Look, I know that we didn't do so hot in our mission and we would have failed if it wasn't for Pyrrha and Agent-A. But we need to remember one thing." Jaune said before Ren straightened up on the couch and stared at Jaune.

"And what's that exactly?" Ren asked him.

"While we didn't get the scale back, we're not exactly any worse off than we were before." Jaune pointed out.

"Your right!" Pyrrha agreed. "We at least know who exactly has the scale right now; we just need to think of how to find him."

"Yeah, all we need to do is think of a plan to find him, break his legs, and get the relic back!" Nora exclaimed, jumping off the couch with a radiating smile.

Even Ren wasn't immune to the changing atmosphere. "That might just work." Ren said with a smile.

Jaune beamed at the renewed enthusiasm of his teammates and friends. "If we brainstorm real hard, we can have that scale in our hands in no time." Jaune stated.

-Eight Days later-

Jaune was leaning on the wall of their hotel room, banging his head lightly on the wall with a blank look on his face while his teammates were slouching on different seats around the room with downtrodden expressions. In the days since the museum incident, they had no luck whatsoever in their endeavors to locate Roman. The few ideas they had quickly ended up meeting dead ends and the news didn't report anything that pointed to the orange haired, bowler hat wearing crook. They haven't even run into Agent-A at all throughout the entire week. They were running out of ideas and the group's morale was suffering for it. The only good thing to come out of the eight days was that they finally paid off their debt to the hotel. Not only did this make James happy, but after their bill was paid off he allowed them to stay for free as long as they continued to work, which they quickly agreed to. However, Nora wasn't allowed to call room service anymore, earning a pout from Nora when James told them that. Their joy from paying off their debt was short lived because of the growing frustration they felt from lack of progress.

"I hate my life sometimes." Jaune whispered with a deadpan tone.

"We've been at this for eight straight days and we ended up with no results." Ren stated, blowing a few stray hairs from his face.

"I know what you mean. Every place we investigated ended up having no information on him. We weren't even able to find the Tartarus Club." Pyrrha stated before sighing. "This is going to be very difficult."

Nora, who was blankly staring at an empty mug, threw her arms up with a frustrated groan. "And it's been so boring since we began!" Nora complained. "I feel like my brain is slowly melting from all this boredom!"

Jaune pondered for a second. "Okay, so maybe we should try a different approach for this." Jaune said. "But what?" At that moment, Pyrrha had an idea.

"Maybe we shouldn't think about what we would do, but what Team RWBY would do!" Pyrrha told them.

"Oh! Is it because they had experiences like this before?!" Nora asked energetically, earning a nod from Pyrrha.

"Exactly, and by following their example, we might be able to find a path right to Torchwick."

Everyone started to get excited, except for Ren who pointed out a flaw in their way of thinking.

"That's fine and all, but there is one problem with that. We don't know anyone that directly associates with him or know he exists except for Mr. 10 and Vincenzo." Ren pointed out. "Mr. 10 is out because he told us everything he knew and I really doubt that a crime lord would tell us anything."

Pyrrha closed her eyes in thought, churning what Ren said in her mind. After a moment, she remembered what he said about the crime lord knowing that Roman exists. Her eyes snapped open, a new plan in her head.

"We should interrogate the criminals around the city." Ren looked at Pyrrha with a raised eyebrow.

"Interrogate criminals?" Ren questioned towards the red head. Jaune's eyes widens in understanding.

"Oh, I get it! Roman is working with a crime lord, meaning that there has to be a few underlings that would know about their partnership." Jaune predicted Pyrrha's idea.

The young women in question smiled and nodded, showing that he did in fact figure out what she was thinking.

"Exactly." Pyrrha said, happy that their leader and blonde crush got it.

Nora smiled widely as she raised her hand upwards.

"I call bad cop!" Nora stated, clearly wanting to play 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' with the criminal scum.

"Nora...I don't think we're going to be doing that." Ren tried to explain.

Nora frowned. "But I want to be bad cop." Nora repeated.

"Nora." Ren said warningly, showing that he wasn't going to budge. That is, until she gave him the good ol' puppy dog eyes.

"Please?" Nora said as pathetically as she could, knowing if she acted like a puppy that was kicked then he would cave.

And cave he did after he sighed. "There is no arguing with you is there?" The head shake she gave him told him her answer, electing another sigh from Ren. "Alright, but no breaking legs, we don't want to make a scene." Ren told her. She lunged at him and gave him a rib breaking hug.

"THANK YOU REN!" Nora thanked her longtime friend.

'My...ribs!' Ren thought, feeling the tell tale signs of his ribs breaking from the pressure of a Nora hug.

While Team JNPR were planning their next move, Ed was sitting in front of his computer with his computer glasses on with a cord connecting the glasses to the computer. The screen of the computer showed each of the members of Team JNPR on it.

"Have you found any weaknesses?" Ed asked his glasses.

"Nothing yet I'm afraid." The glasses replied. "But from what I was able to gather, Jaune Arc is the weakest of the group and will most likely not require special equipment to deal with in case you have to fight them. For Pyrrha Nikos, I would suggest the use of plastic guns and bullets against her. It might not be that damaging to her, but at least you'll be able to remain armed when she uses her powers."

Ed hummed in thought. "How about Nora and Ren?" Ed asked, hoping that his hi-tech glasses would have something on them.

"I'm afraid that we have yet to see enough of how they fight to accurately determine any strength or weaknesses. We would need to watch them some more to understand them." The glasses pointed out.

"That means we have no idea whether or not their superhumans." Ed concluded.

"Indeed. At this moment, Pyrrha is the only confirmed member that is superhuman."

"Hmm..." the black haired man hummed while rubbing his chin, the gears in his head kicking into overdrive to figure out what to do.

"Ed, I can understand your distrust towards those four teens, but they don't really appear to be that bad. They did go out of their way to stop a thief." The computerized glasses pointed out.

Ed shook his head. "No, they only did that because they needed to get the location of the relic that Mr. 10 stole." The electronics repair man argued. "And until I find out why they need it so badly, I'm going to keep my eyes on them."

The glasses was silent for a moment. "I'm getting concerned for you. Is it because super villains are starting to appear more as of late?" It asked him.

With a frustrated sigh, Ed rubbed his face tiredly. "It just seems that no matter how many times you take them down, more ends up coming out of the wood works." Ed said, showing how tired he was.

"Well said. Perhaps the four teens your currently fixated with can assist us." The A.I. offered. "It would definitely improve our chances with the increasing numbers of super villains."

"There's a problem with that." Ed stated. "Hero team ups tend to end up being more of a mess then not. With different people with conflicting personalities, opinion, ideals, morals, and philosophies coming together, it usually ends up with them butting heads and hatred sparks among the group. Before long, the partnership between the heroes dissolves and they go their separate ways and everything goes back to what it used to be. Working alone." Ed explained. "Besides, we both know their opinion of how I deal with criminals."

"Daddy?" The voice of his daughter called out from behind him before the glass's A.I. could retort. Ed slowly spun around in his office chair to see Violet with her ears tucked back and a sad expression on her face.

"What's wrong Violet?" Ed asked in concern. "I thought you were playing in your room."

Violet hesitated for a moment, mentally wondering if she should come out and say it."You're doing it again, aren't you?" Violet finally asked.

Ed was silent for a moment. "...Yes." He replied.

Violet started to shake before she ran at her father and hugged his leg.

"Daddy please don't!" Violet begged, her lips quivering as tears threatened to run down her face. "You're going to end up getting hurt this time!"

Ed gave his cat-eared daughter a sad look and placed his hand on her head and rubbed her scalp soothingly.

"Violet...you know that I have to do this. The city needs me...it needs Agent-A." The black haired man tried to reason with her.

"Can't anyone else be Agent-A?!" Violet yelled, small streams of tears sliding down her cheek.

Ed looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry Violet, only I and I alone can shoulder this burden." Ed told her.

"What if you get hurt or worse?" Violet asked between sobs.

He flashed her a reassuring smile. "Hey now, I'll be fine. I always come back in one piece." Ed said to reassure her. Violet was silent as she tried to reel in her tears.

Without another word, he gets up from his chair, crouches down to her level and embraced her with his arms. Violet slowly wrapped her arms around his bigger form and held on tight, savoring his warmth as if would be the last she'll ever get.

After almost a minute, Ed broke the hug. "Do you feel better?" Ed asked the white haired girl. Violet gave him a small nod, a small smile on her face, causing Ed to smile back.

"Good. Why don't you go and play in your room while I go out for some errands?" Ed asked.

Violet nodded, her mood thoroughly lifted. "Okay." Violet replied before turning around and running out of the room and back towards hers. The older man stood up from his previous crouching position and smiled at where Violet once was.

"What did I do to deserve such a wonderful daughter?" Ed said to himself.

His glasses decided at that moment to remind him that it was still there.

"Don't forget, she isn't your daughter by blood." The A.I. reminded the black haired man. Said man scowled, irritated at the glasses for ruining the moment.

"I know." Ed replied, doing little to hide his irritation.

"And don't you think that it's bizarre that she has cat ears of all things?" The glasses continued to question.

"I guess so." Ed dismissively said, offering the glasses a shrug.

"You guess so? Edward ever since you saved her from her abusive father, you never tried to ask anything about her origin or about her mother." The A.I. sounded a bit exasperated by Ed's answer and the fact that he never questioned Violet about her other birth parent. "Why?"

Ed's eyes became distant, as if lost in thought. "Because...I have a feeling that it would be a story I'm very familiar with." Ed told the A.I.

"Oh? And what story it that?" The A.I. asked curiously, only to be met with a blank stare, courtesy of Ed's dark eyes.

"Oh, right...that story. Please forgive me." it apologized.

He simple shook his head. "It's fine. But right now I need to find those teens and try to find out more about them." Ed said before walking over to his suitcase and opens it, revealing his costume.

Meanwhile, Team JNPR went into the city in search of a place where villains would most likely hang out. About an hour later, they stumbled across a building that looked like it was in need of a serious repair job. Over the door was a sign that said, 'Dead-man's Bar'.

"This place looks like the kind of place where criminals would hang out at." Jaune stated, sounding sure of himself.

Ren, however, wasn't convinced. "Are you sure? Just because it has a bit of a odd name and the building looks like it seen better days, doesn't mean that criminal's would hang out here." Ren argued. Moments later the door to the bar swung open and a very muscular man tossed a weirdly dressed man out the door. The man was airborne for a few moments before he landed painfully face first a few feet away from the four teens.

"AND STAY OUT YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A VILLAIN!" The bouncer yelled towards the downed man, who was groaning as he managed to flip himself over so his face wasn't touching the concrete floor, showing that odd assortment of clothing that made up his outfit. He was wearing green pajamas with the words 'DM' stitched on his chest, rubber gloves covering his hands, a cape made from a shower curtain, and a tube sock for his mask.

The fact he would wear that in the middle of the day in public baffled the members of Team JNPR tremendously. This was the day that they met Dude-Man.

"Come on, I'm not that bad!" The Dude-Man whined.

"While they couldn't see the bouncer's face, they could tell that he was rolling his eyes. "For Pete sakes Dave, you couldn't even hurt an ant or rob a convenience store right!" The buff man pointed out. "Until you clean up your act and become a better villain, don't even think of coming near here." After that, the bouncer slammed the door shut, making DM cringe.

'This guy is even lamer then I am!' Jaune couldn't help but think to himself.

Feeling sympathy for the lousy criminal, Pyrrha approaches the criminal.

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked kindly, holding out her hand to help him up.

"Yeah, the only thing that's actually hurt is my pride." Dude-Man said sadly, excepting her hand and was pulled up to his feet.

"Who are you?" Ren asked DM as he approached him and Pyrrha. Dude-Man perked up and cleared his throat.

"Me?" Dude-Man asked Ren, trying to make himself sound more intimidating by making his voice sound more gruff, but was failing because his voice alternated from his normal voice and gruff. "I am the most diabolical, the most brutal, the most harsh, the most crul-"

"You seem to use most a lot." Jaune pointed out, interrupted sock-masked villain mid-introduction.

"As I was saying." Dude-Man said, sounding irritated before continuing. "I am the one true arch-enemy of all heroes. I am...Dude-Man!" Dude-Man struck a pose where he grabbed parts of his curtain cape and raised his arms high, making them look like blue wings. He then proceeded to laugh evilly, which sounded like a dying mule.

Team JNPR stared at him before they broke down laughing. The pathetic villain immediately stopped his laugh and looked at the four laughing teens with confusion.

"What's so funny? Why are you laughing?" Dude-Man questioned them.

Pyrrha wiped a tear from her eye. "Sorry, it's just your name is so weird." Pyrrha admitted. The black haired villain's eyes twitched before he sighed, slouching forward with his arms dangling.

"Great, now kids are making fun of me." Dude-Man said sadly as his body started to twitch.

At that point, Nora stopped laughing at raised her hand. "I'm not laughing at your name." Nora told him, causing him to snapped his head upwards to look at her, hope in his eyes.

"Really? I finally got some rightly deserved respect here." Dude-Man said proudly.

"I'm laughing at you costume, it looks like something that a Saturday morning cartoon would wear." Nora continued to explain, as if DM didn't say anything.

Dude-Man stared at her for a minute before slouching down again. "This is why I hate kids." DM mumbled.

After awhile, Jaune managed to stop laughing and cleared his throat.

"So anyway, is this where all of the villains and criminals come and hang out?" Jaune asked the low class criminal.

Dude-Man sighed as he stood up straight, still feeling a bit sore about being laughed at. "Yeah, but only some people." Dude-Man answered. "The owner will only allow the worst of the worst into his bar, so in other words, you would have to be a villain that can get a wanted poster to be able to get any serious respect in the criminal underworld. Sadly I'm not at that level." Dude-Man looked down sadly, sniffing at his misfortune of being a subpar villain.

"Wanted posters?" Ren asked, not seeing a single wanted poster since they got here. The short, black haired villain didn't bother looking up, instead pointing at the walls surrounding the entrance. "Yeah, like those posters over there next to the entrance to the bar." Dude-Man replied in a downtrodden tone.

The four turned towards the bar doors and saw that, like Dude-Man said, there was a good number of wanted posters with a different person in each one. The first one to really catch their attention was one where the person was wearing yellow and red armor with a red cape and a matching yellow helmet with a red Y for the visor. The next poster made them do a double take because the person on it looked almost exactly like Agent-A. But on closer inspection, this person had a different color scheme consisting of silver and gray. What shocked them the most was that the face lacked a nose and mouth while the eyes were glaring red. The third one they instantly recognized as Vincenzo, the crime boss that Roman was supposedly working alongside.

Jaune gulped. "Man, they all look tough." Jaune said, unable to keep some of his uneasiness from cropping up in his voice.

"The yellow guy with the cape is my favorite." Nora chimed, liking the way he dresses.

Dude-man chuckled. "You think those three are bad? They don't even come close to this guy's level." Dude-Man stated while pointing towards another poster.

The team looked towards where the villain was pointing to see a rather intimidating individual. ON the poster was a man wearing a jacket that was half black and white. On his face was a skeletal mask which looked like it had its left eye stitched shut. A shiver went down the teen's spines.

"Who is that?" Pyrrha asked, not taking her eyes off the man in the wanted poster.

"That, my friends, is Dhampir Grim." Dude-Man introduce with a hint of pride in his voice.

"Dhampir Grim?" Ren asked, trying to make sure he said the name right.

"Yeah, he's one of the greatest villains and assassins to ever grace this world with his abilities, only bested by one or two villains." Dude-Man was happy to describe. "There's actually not that much that is known about him. All that everyone is certain about him is that he has done many horrible but amazing things in his career, from having a perfect assassination record with no failures, to even taking out a elite team of special military soldiers with only a gun loaded with a single bullet. There is even a rumor that he's not even human."

From the glee in the villain voice as he described Dhampir Grim, the Team would have guessed that Dude-Man was a fan boy.

"So if he isn't human, what is he?" Jaune felt the need to ask. Dude-Man shook his head.

"It's like I said before, no one really knows all that much about him, only the things he has done. Sure some of the top tier villains could do some of the things he could do, but there is one thing the Dhampir did that sets him apart from everyone else." Dude-Man stated, getting the team intrigued even more.

"Oh! What's that?" Nora asked, excited to learn what he did.

The black haired villain smiled. "He was able to find out Agent-A's identity."

The team was stunned at the news that someone managed to find out the identity of a man that kills villains in the name of justice without getting himself killed.

"WHAT?!" Team JNPR yelled in unison.

"It's true, no one actually knows how he did it, but he actually did it." Dude-Man claimed before looking at his wrist watch, which the team didn't see before. "Whelp, it's time to go to my therapist."

Dude-Man looked up at them and waved. "It's been fun, talking to you four really made me feel better. Bye." Dude-Man walked away with a skip in his step, leaving the stunned team behind. It took them a few minutes to compose themselves.

"Great, now we have more villains to look out for." Jaune said, not liking the idea of facing someone like Dhampir Grim.

Nora, on the other hand, shrugged. "I think we can take them." She said confidently, smacking her fist in her open hand with a satisfying smacking noise.

"We can worry about that later, right now we need to get information on Roman." Ren stated, wanting to get to the matter on hand before they have to deal with someone else.

"Alright, but the guy won't let us in because we're not villains, so we're going to have to pull a Yang here if you all know what I mean." Pyrrha said, knowing how Yang does this sort of thing. Go in, interrogate, beat the tar out of everyone if they don't comply, and leave once they get their information and leave behind a pile of unconscious people.

So after mentally preparing themselves, they entered Dead Man's bar to start their investigation, not knowing that on the roof top, Android-A was watching them. His piercing glowing eyes watching ominously as they entered the bar.

The sight that greeted the four Hunters and Huntresses in trained was a dark and shady look room. Surprisingly the bar wasn't filled with criminals and villains like they expected, only have four people inside, one of which they recognized as the bouncer from earlier. He was playing what looked like poker with two other men that resembled him. The one other person in the bar was a man with yellowish skin, greying hair, and a pepper shaker goatee. The man was currently wiping down the bar area with a wet napkin.

"I think that he's the owner." Jaune theorized, pointing at the yellow skinned man currently cleaning the bar.

"One way to find out." Ren said, approaching the man while the others followed his lead. He stood in front of the yellowed skinned man and cleared his throat to get his attention. The man looks up and examines them before sneering at them.

"What are you brats doing here? Don't you know this place is for adults only?" The barkeep said with a gravelly voice.

"Yes, and we understand that perfectly." Ren said pleasantly. "But we have a few questions that we think you can answer for us."

The bar owner narrows his eyes and leaned towards them. "You want to know something kid, I really don't give a damn about your questions. So why don't you and your little friends get the hell out of here before I have my boys beat some sense into your little skulls!" The barkeeper threatened.

Pyrrha, knowing that this was going to get ugly fast, raised her guard as she prepared for combat. Sensing what she was doing, her teammates did the same.

"I'm afraid that we can't do that sir. If you want us out so bad, then why not corroborate with us and answer our questions." Pyrrha said through her teeth, at least trying to be diplomatic.

Unfortunately, diplomacy fell through when the barkeep looked up just enough to make eye contact with the bouncer and slyly gestured toward the kids in front of him. The bouncer nodded and quickly and quietly said a few words to the other large men. The barkeeper smirk devilishly as he looked back to Team JNPR.

"Alright then, don't say I didn't warn you brats." He told them as the three men got up from their table and approached them.

When the three thuggish men were close enough, they all sprung into action as Jaune and Pyrrha rushed at two of the large men while Ren rushed towards the bouncer. Jaune and Pyrrha leaped at their respective targets and took out their shields and smashed them on top of the goon's head, dazing them as they stumbled from the powerful hits to their skulls.

Meanwhile, Ren was effortlessly weaving and dodging the strikes for the bouncer. Ren maneuvered himself so the larger man was exactly in-between himself and Nora. He proceeded to pump his aura into his right hand then thrusted his open palm into the bouncers gut, sending the man towards the grinning Nora, who held Magnhild in hand and was ready to swing.

After disorientating the two thugs, Pyrrha dropped low and swept the man she was fighting off his feet and kicked him towards the man Jaune was fighting. Jaune quickly sidestepped away just as the one thug smashed into the other, sending both of them flying right towards Nora. Within seconds all three of the men were feet from colliding with Nora. With a gleam in her eye, the orange haired tank fighter swung her mighty war hammer in a circle, catching all three of the men at once. After another full spin, Nora suddenly stopped and let the momentum of her spinning carry the thugs away, right through a wall and outside.

The barkeep mouth dropped at the display he just witness. Four brats just waltzed into his bar and beat his bouncers in only a minute.

The aging barkeep started to sweat profusely when the four abnormal teens walked up to him.

"Now...I believe that you have some questions to answer." Ren told him.

"Alright I'll talk!" The man said in a panic. "What do you want to know?"

Pyrrha stepped up. "We want to know where Vincenzo's base of operation is." The barkeeper's became the size of plates after hearing what she just said.

"The devil of crime himself? Sorry brats, even if I did know where he does his business, there is no way in hell I would tell any of you. I do not need a target painted on my back for him and his assistant to practice on." The barkeep told them in a tone that bluntly told them that he wasn't going to budge on the subject.

"Look, we really need to know where he is. We have reasons to believe that he's working with a man named Roman Torchwick." Jaune tried to persuade him. The barkeeper's eyes instantly lit up in recognition.

"Roman? The guy that has orange hair and dresses in white with a bowler hat?" Team JNPR smiled and nodded at his question. "Yeah, I know that guy. There's a rumor that he entered a partnership with another person."

"Really? With who?" Pyrrha interrogated the bar owner. The man's face contorted in a cruel smile, pointing behind them at the door.

"Him." The owner of the bar simply said.

The team looked at him questionably before turning around and spotted the man that he was pointed at. They instantly recognized him as the same criminal from one of the posters; Android-A. The cybernetic criminal stood next to the door and stared at them with his red eyes.

"Oooooooooh." Jaune said in understanding, realizing that the Agent-A lookalike was working with one of the biggest criminals of their world. So without hesitation, Jaune said the one thing that was in all of their minds at that moment.

"Crap." Jaune inelegantly said.

Team JNPR and the Android version of Agent-A stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, which was only a few seconds. By this time, the barkeeper had already ran into the back room in an attempt to keep out of the crossfire. After a few more moments of staring, Android-A made the first move and started to slowly moving towards them.

Ren and Pyrrha were quick to react by aiming their gun at Android-A and opened fire at the approaching threat. As the dust infused ammunition impacted his body, the bullets ricocheted off his body and ended up hitting the tables, chairs, and the bottles of alcohol behind the bar, damaging them badly. They both stopped shooting when they realized that the only things that were getting destroyed from their onslaught was the bar furniture and Android-A's shirt and trench coat.

Ren decided that since their long-range attacks weren't going to work on him, then he was going to go for close range and charges the mechanical man. The magenta eyed teen raised Stormflower and attempted to stab the blades into Android-A's shoulder, only for the machine to grab his wrists and tosses him behind it and out the door. Nora, enraged at Android-A for tosses Ren like that, charged at the glowing eyed robot in an attempt to knock his block off. However, the moment the war hammer was close enough, Android-A caught the hammer with his left hand and pull it and Nora to it, making Nora loss balance. He clamped his righthand around Nora's throat and held her up and tossed the hammer away.

"NORA!" Pyrrha and Jaune yelled in horror as the hand that held her up started to tighten around her throat.

"H-Help." Nora managed to choke out as she felt her airway being closed shut.

"LET HER GO YOU TIN CAN!" Jaune angrily yelled.

Android-A shook his head no and reached into the pocket of his coat and started to fish something out. When the hand receded from the pocket, Android-A held the object out to reveal a picture of Agent-A

Jaune, not getting what the robot wanted, scowled at Him. "What? You attacked us to show us a picture of him?" Jaune questioned. In response, Android-A shook his head no again.

Pyrrha repeatedly stared back and forth from the picture of Agent-A and the piercing red eyes of Android-A. She smiled as an idea popped into her head.

"I think he wants us to tell him where Agent-A is, isn't that right?" Pyrrha asked the android, who nodded yes for once.

Pyrrha smirked as she stared at the arm that was holding Nora up. "Well too bad." Pyrrha told the android before focusing her polarization semblance on the arm and ripped it clean off his body without resistance. The hand immediately released Nora's throat, allowing her to rush back to her teammates as she coughed and sucked in much needed air.

"Are you alright?!" Jaune asked Nora with concern.

Nora wheezed for a few moments before giving Jaune a thumbs up. "Yeah (wheeze) But I don't think…I'm going to take…air granted again." Nora told him weakly.

Android-A curiously looked at the unmoving appendage on the floor and then to Pyrrha, quickly scanning her before his eyes lit up once the scan was complete. He crouched down and picked up his arm and held it to the stump that was still attached to him. Before the team could question what he was doing, wires and cables shoot out of the arm and attached themselves to his stump. To the teams' horror, the arm pulled itself to the stump and reattached themselves together. Before long, the arm looked like nothing had happened to it.

"Pyrrha...we are going to need to tear that thing apart completely fast!" Jaune said urgently.

Pyrrha didn't need to be told twice as she immediately starts using her semblance to take all of his limbs off. However, Pyrrha instantly knew something was off when the limbs didn't even twitch an inch. Seeing that nothing was happening, Android-A started to walk slowly towards them.

"Wh-what's happened?!" Pyrrha asked shakily as she took a step back. "It worked last time, why isn't it working now?!"

"He's getting closer!" Nora exclaimed in fear, wishing that she had Magnhild with her so she could at least hit him with a few grenades to slow him down. They jumped when they heard a gun going off. A millisecond later, a bullet went through Android-A's head, causing him to spasmed for a moment for it collapsed to the ground.

They looked up from the Android-A to see that they were saved by none other than Agent-A.

"Oh Oum, I never thought I would be happy to see you." Jaune said, breathing a sigh of relief as he flicked some sweat off his forehead.

"Nice to know kid." Agent-A said. "But we need to GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE NOW!"

They were surprised by the fact that he shouted so suddenly. But they were even more surprised by the fact that he sounded slightly afraid. So deciding that they should follow what he said; Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora ran towards the door, Nora quickly grabbed her weapon before rushing out and grabbing Ren. The second they left, Android-A rose from the ground as the hole in his head started to repair itself. Without hesitation, the mechanical menace turned around and gave chase for the heroes.

While they were running, Jaune couldn't help but wonder something. "So Agent-A, not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why are you here?" Jaune asked the masked vigilante.

"To keep an eye on all of you." Agent-A answered, not missing a beat. The blonde leader gave him a funny look.

"So you've been watching us?" Jaune questioned.

"Pretty much."

Jaune just stared at the older man, not really knowing how to respond to that. "That's...just creepy." Jaune ended up saying.

"We can discuss this later!" Pyrrha interrupted before turning her head to look at Agent-A. "What exactly are we dealing with here? Why didn't my semblance do anything to that thing the second time I used it?"

"What we're dealing with is Android-A, a robotic copy of myself that was created in Japan by a unknown person. Whoever created him created a chip within the android's CPU to be able to adapt and learn from everything that is thrown at him. So every time someone tries to destroy him, Android-A adapts and develops ways to prevent whatever damages him from being able to do so again." Agent-A explained carefully. "He also has only one prime directive."

"And what's that?" Nora asked.

"...To find and end my life." Agent-A told them. Everyone was silent for a moment.

"Oh." was the only response Jaune could make.

"Yeah, that metal bastard has been chasing after me for about two years now. Because of the adaption chip, I always have to keep changing my tactics every time I fight him. And to answer your question miss Nikos, after you used your so-called 'semblance', the chip in his CPU most likely created a anti-magnetic field to shield him from any magnetic powers. Meaning you just made him even more difficult to get rid of." Agent-A explained.

Pyrrha sighed in frustration, feeling bad for making things worse. "Sorry."

They continued to run when Agent-A turned left on the sidewalk.

"So what are we going to do now?" Jaune asked.

Agent-A smiled at his question. "I'm glad you asked, it just so happens that I already have a plan in mind. But we need to get to the subway station before we can do anything."

"Alright, that's a good start." Jaune praised. "Then what?"

'This is where you four come in, I need you all to distract him long enough for this to work. Can you do that for me?" Agent-A asked them.

"Aye Captain!" Nora said with a big grin, causing the vigilante to raise his eyebrow at her.

"Did you just call me ca-"

"Just roll with it." Pyrrha interrupted, knowing this wasn't the time to explain Nora's random nature.

After another ten minutes of running, the group of five finally made their way to the subway station, the same one that Team JNPR and Agent-A first met. Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha took this time to catch their breath while Ren started to wake up from Nora's back.

"What...happened?" Ren asked slowly, still feeling slightly out of it.

Nora grinned as she lowered him to the ground and leaned him on a pillar.

"Oh Ren! I'm so glad your okay!" Nora exclaimed before taking a huge breath. "You were knocked out by Android-A and I tried to avenge you only to nearly get choked to death but then Pyrrha tears his arm off before he puts it back on then Pyrrha tries again but doesn't work then Agent-A shows up and-" Ren stopped her nearly incomprehensible explanation by placing two of his fingers over her mouth.

"I...think I got the idea." Ren stated.

By this point, Jaune was finished catching his breath. "Okay, now that we are here, what are you going to...do?" Jaune turned to look at Agent-A as he asked his question, only to see that Agent-A was gone once more.

Ren's eyes twitched at the revelation. "Did he just...abandon us?" Ren asked feeling mighty ticked that the so called hero has apparently left them to fight the mechanical monstrosity that was chasing them.

"I'm sure that this is just part of his plan." Jaune tried to assure everyone as a subway train speed past them. When it left, Android-A could be seen from the other side of the track that the subway train was on, appearing out of thin air. Nora, who was looking that way, was the first to notice the android.

"Uh, guys." Nora called out nervously, raising her hand to point at the mechanical version of Agent-A. "Android-A is over there."

The others immediately spun around to look at where she was pointing, and were alarmed that he already caught up with them.

"You got to be kidding me!" Jaune yelled, hoping that they had more time to prepare before he turned up.

Android-A leaped high over the tracks and descended towards Jaune. Jaune cursed as he tried to raise his shield in time to block him but was too slow and ended up getting kneed in the cheek, sending him flying away. When he landed, he rolled to a stop and held his cheek then hissed in pain as his aura started to heal it. Android-A landed on the spot that Jaune was previously standing in a crouching position.

Seeing an opportunity, Pyrrha launched her spear at the android, only for the him to catch it effortlessly and toss it away. Ren and Nora charged him and did a pincher attack with Ren charging from its left side and Nora charging its right. Android-A tried to knock Ren away, only for Ren to leap over him and stab Stormflower into his left eye. While it was trying to deal with Ren, Nora grabbed its right arm and used her semblance to produce electricity into her arm. The orange haired girl grinned madly as she channeled electricity from her arm into Android-A's arm, which coursed into his body.

The energy flowing in his mechanical body and circuits body caused Android-A to start convulsing from the excess energy wreaking havoc throughout his system. Before long, Android-A short circuited and shut down from the damage, the red light in his eyes dimmed before going black.

"I guess you could say that this was a...shocking experience." Nora said making a pun that would have made Yang proud. Ren face palmed from the horrible pun.

"Nora...just why?" Ren asked the shorter girl.

"Maybe you should leave the puns for Yang." Pyrrha said as she approached Nora and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Without warning, Android-A's eye lit back up before he grabbed Ren by the face and lifted him up. Pyrrha, shocked that the robot survived, tried to rush at him to save her teammate. But before she could get close enough to do anything, Android-A threw Ren at Pyrrha, causing both the magenta eyed teen and the red hair girl to tumble to the ground. Nora grabbed Android-A by the shoulder and attempted to use her semblance against the android again, only for it to fail and only powered him up. Android-A grabbed Nora and tossed her at a pillar, which cracked when her body made contact.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha managed to untangle herself from Ren and was staring at the android wearily.

'How did he survive that?! Surely that would have destroyed him before he could adapt to Nora's semblance.' Pyrrha thought to herself as she summoned her weapon to her using her semblance and was ready to charge at the metal creation.

Then suddenly, a large bullet blasted through Android-A's knee then another one went through his shoulder. From a long distance away, Agent-A was looking at his work through the scope of a sniper rifle.

"Just a little more." Agent-A whispered to himself before shooting the sniper again, this time hitting Android-A in the other shoulder, the force of the shot pushing the android off the edge of the platform and onto the tracks.

Jaune, who had finally recovered from the kick from earlier, saw his chance and rushed towards the tracks where Android-A fell with his sword unsheathed.

"You're going down for good this time tin can!" Jaune yelled as he made it to the edge and was about to jump in.

Pyrrha stared at him in shock before she heard something in the distance. She eyes trailed towards where she heard the sound, her eyes widened when her eyes stopped at the tunnel that the tracks that Android-A was currently laying on was connected to.

"JAUNE! STOP!" Pyrrha tried to warn the blonde leader, knowing what was coming. By the time her warning got to him, he had already jumped towards Android-A, his sword aimed for its neck. It was at this moment that Jaune finally heard the noise coming from the subway tunnel and slowly turned his head to see a subway train speeding towards him in slow motion.

'Why do I make bad decisions?' Jaune couldn't help but asked himself, realizing that he wouldn't have time to land then get off the tracks before the train hit him, ending his life.

Android-A turned towards the train as well before turning towards the teen currently falling towards him. Thinking quickly, Android-A bents his legs and back so his feet would be level with Jaune's chest, and made a few quick calculations in his head. When Jaune was a in the right position, Android-A donkey kicked Jaune in the chest, sending Jaune flying backwards. The angle and speed that Jaune flew upwards sent him spiraling back onto the platform, landing on his front as the train ran over Android-A.

Pyrrha's breathe hitch when she saw Jaune somehow getting out of the way of the train in time and ran over to him.

"Jaune?! Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked frantically, flipping him over so she could examine his face to make sure he wasn't hurt.

Jaune groaned as he sat up. "Yeah, I think so." Jaune told her. They rest of the team came over to check up on Jaune before looking over the edge of the subway platform when the train was gone. They saw that Android-A was ripped in half from the waist, his right arm was all bend up while the left arm was completely crushed. His right leg was completely broken off while the left leg, like his right arm, was bent in an angle. Android-A's head, which as detached from the rest of the body, laid unmoving, eyes completely dark.

They all stared at the unmoving body, relieve filling their beings.

"WE DID IT!" Nora yelled in celebration. "We BEAT THE ROBOT!"

Ren smiled as Nora started to jump up and down. The only one not feeling happy was Jaune, who stared blankly at Android-A's mangled body. Pyrrha immediately noticed this and gave Jaune a concerned look.

"Is everything alright Jaune?" Pyrrha asked the blonde.

"Android-A...sacrificed itself to save me." Jaune stated. "But...why?" At was at this moment that Agent-A made his way back to the team with the sniper slung over his shoulder by a strap and heard what Jaune said.

"It's because he never actually wanted to harm any of you." Agent-A answered, getting the team's attention. "The only reason why Android-A even bothered you was because he saw you as a obstacle to his attempt to find information about me. When you were fighting him, didn't you notice that he only did non-lethal attacks?"

They thought about for a moment and saw that for the most part he was right.

"He makes a good point, Android-A had many opportunities to kill at least one of us but. didn't." Ren said after reexamining the fight at the bar and subway station. "He didn't even use the guns that were on his sides."

"That's good and all, but what about when he tried to choke Nora?" Pyrrha argued, not seeing how that incident wasn't a lethal move on Android-A's part.

"That was only a threat, of you didn't say anything to him then it would have let her go before she suffocated." Agent-A assured them.

"How would you know that?" Nora asked him.

"It's because I've faced him enough to know that doing all that to you was tearing him up inside." Agent-A told her, surprising everyone. "Not a lot of people know that, but because of the adaption chip, Android-A was able to quickly develop human emotions. Hell, the only reason he continues to hunt me down is because of his primary directive." Agent-A sighs sadly. "Every time I see him, I could sense that he is being torn between the emotions he developed and his directive. I almost pity him."

The team looked down sadly at the revelation, feeling horrible for celebrating the death of someone that was in such an internal struggle.

Jaune took this the hardest, now knowing that Android-A died because he cared enough to save him.

"Anyway, I think it's best that we leave the area before the police arrive." Agent-A said. "I'm not sure you four are going to be able to explain any of this." They nodded in agreement and headed for the exit except for Jaune, who looked back at Android-A's body and gave him a sad look.

"I hope that now you will find peace in your turmoil." Jaune said before closing his eyes in respect. "Rest in peace Android-A, and thank you." After saying his piece, Jaune rushed so he can catch up with his friends, mentally promising to remember the sacrifice that the conflicted android made for him.

-At the Tartarus Bar, later that evening-

Roman was absentmindedly smoking a cigar while watching the news, seeing the mangled remains of Android-A on the subway tracks. Roman took the cigar out of his mouth and put it out in the nearby ash tray, aggravation flashing in his eyes.

"Well that was disappointing." Roman calmly said. "Now what the hell my going to do?"

Just then, Junior entered the room, interrupting Roman's train of thought.

"Hey Torchwick, we got someone here to see you." Junior told the criminal.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Probably someone here to waste my time." Roman said, his patience wearing thin. "Fine, send whoever it is in, and while you're at it, send someone to scavenge whatever's left of that bolt head." Junior nodded and left the room to fetch the guest. Moments later, the door opened again and a weirdly dressed man entered the room and closed the door behind him. Roman noticed that he was wearing a yellow and red outfit, a red cape with red shoulder pads, and a yellow helmet with a red Y shaped visor.

Roman raised an eye at the man's outfit choice. "Can I...help you?" Roman asked, unsure about the man's intentions.

"Yes, I'm Y-irus the mercenary and I was sent here against my will to assist you." Y-irus said, not hiding his distain at the slightest.

"Well don't you seem to be in a bad mood, what's wrong, someone made fun of your costume?" Roman asked mockingly.

"No, you pal Cinder forced me to come here." Y-irus practically spat before m***. "Oh God do I regret taking that job for her in the first place."

"Trust me, I feel your pain." Roman said sympathetically. "She forces me to do things I don't agree with too. But maybe you can be of some use for me."

Y-irus waved his hand dismissively in front of him. "As long as you keep me away from Agent-A, then you won't get any complaints from me." Y-irus told him.

Roman thought for a minute before an idea popped into his head.

"I do believe I have the perfect job for you." Roman told the red and yellow themed villain. "How about taking care of some brats for me?"

At the mention of brats, Y-irus tensed. "Please tell me they don't have any fancy scythes or something!" Y-irus said, sounding a bit panicked about something. The mention of scythes made Roman's eyes lit up in recognition but he didn't comment about it.

"There's no one with that weapon on this team, that I assure you. These will be your targets." Roman told him before clicking at the screen to show security footage of Team JNPR.

Y-irus hummed as he examined the four teens. "They don't seem like they will be too much trouble. So what do you want me to do with them?"

Roman smirked cruelly as he took out another cigar and lit it, taking a huff of the tobacco product before blowing smoke. "Kill them."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Revenge

After they were a safe distance away from the crime scene, Agent-A disappeared before they could even say a word to him, leaving the four teens alone to walk to the hotel. It took them around an hour before they finally reached the hotel and by that point the sun was starting to set on the horizon. Upon reaching their room, they decided that they should clean themselves up before having a meeting. Once they were looking proper, they reconvened in the living room, where Ren started to pace with his hand folded behind his back.

"Alright!" Ren said in a calm tone, beginning the meeting. "I think we should go over what we've seen so far, hero and villain-wise. First we met Agent-A, who executes criminals that had killed the innocent. Then we met Mr. 10, a world class thief that specializes in card based weaponry as his primary way of attack. And today we encountered a mechanical version of Agent-A calleud Android-A." Ren listed. "Who we can confirm that was working with Torchwick, who we have yet to find out where he is, until the incident at the subway station that is."

Jaune's face sagged at being reminded on what transpired only a few hours.

"Oh, we can't forget that sock masked guy with the weird outfit and obvious issues!" Nora pointed out.

"Yes...of course." Ren blankly said. "But since he didn't seem to be that much of a threat, we can exclude him."

"What worries me is that Roman is starting to work with other villains other than Vincenzo." Pyrrha voiced her worries.

Ren nodded in understanding. "Yes, and the fact that we had so much trouble fighting the evil of this world so far is also worrying." Ren pointed out.

Pyrrha's face turned grim and she stared at her folded hand. "That's exactly what I was worrying about." Pyrrha turned towards Jaune. "What do you think Jaune?"

While they were talking, Jaune wasn't paying attention to what they were saying. So when Pyrrha called his name, he didn't respond. Pyrrha waited for a few moments, her face knitted in concern. "Jaune?" Pyrrha called out in worry as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

Jaune tensed at the sudden contact and snapped his head towards the direction that it came from, only to be met with Pyrrha's concerned expression. He quickly replaced his sad expression with an uneasy smile.

"Oh sorry, what are we talking about?" Jane asked, trying to make it seem like nothing was wrong. Unfortunately for him, Pyrrha knew him long enough to see past the fake smile.

"Is there something bothering you?" Pyrrha asked her leader.

Jaune quickly threw his hands above his chest and waved them around. "N-Nothing is wrong. I'm just feeling a bit down." Jaune told them as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Is it about Android-A?" Ren asked him, deducing that he might still be upset about what happened.

Jaune's fake smile quickly dropped and sighed. "Yeah, it's about him." Jaune admitted.

"Want to talk about it?" Nora asked, looking at him in concern.

"It's just that he saved me and I wasn't able to save him. I guess...it just cemented the fact that I'm completely useless." Jaune explained.

Pyrrha frowned. "But Jaune, you're not use-"

"Yes I am!" Jaune cried out, shaking like a leaf in the wind. "I always end up failing everyone that I should have be able to protect. I failed when the statues were destroyed, I failed to protect the customer's at Ed's store a week ago, and I...wasn't able to stop Android-A from getting ran over by the subway train. It's like everyone around me is in danger and I'm too weak to do anyth-."

Pyrrha interrupted his self destructive rant by hugging him, his head ending up resting in the crook of her neck. Before Jaune could question Pyrrha, she shushed him.

"Jaune." Ren called him. "What happened with the statues wasn't your fault; none of us could have been prepared for what happened. The criminals of our world blindsided us before we could do anything."

"And those people at the store were saved by Agent-A." Pyrrha pointed out.

Nora jumped off the couch and moved over so she was next Jaune. "And besides, you don't have to fight by yourself, because you have us to have your back." Nora told him. "And together, WE ARE STRONG!" Nora struck an epic pose where she had one foot on the ground, the other on the couch, and her left arm out stretched with her hand in a fist.

Jaune could feel how much they cared for him radiating off them. "Guys...your right. I shouldn't be hard on myself. Thank you for making me see that." Jaune thanked them, feeling gratitude that he was assigned to such a wonderful team that cared so much for him.

They all smiled before Jaune and Pyrrha broke their hug, both of them blushing. Ren cleared his throat. "Speaking of Agent-A, we have to keep a close eye on him now that we know he's spying on us." Ren stated.

"But why would he be spying on us anyway?" Pyrrha asked, her face no longer burning red.

"If I had to guess, he's probably trying to get info on us. He mentioned that he was capable of get info on anyone in the world." Ren reminded them. "We, however, are not from this world. Meaning that there is no such information on us that is available to him. And I bet that is making him anxious."

"I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, given that he keeps on referring to us as Superhumans and all." Pyrrha pointed out. "Plus he doesn't seem to trust us all that much."

"And because of that, there's a good chance that he's trying to learn our weaknesses so he can us them against us." Ren stated, his eyes darkening. "We can't trust him not to back stab us."

Jaune chose this time to stand up, a frown adorning his face. "Now hold up." Jaune demanded. "While we aren't exactly on good terms with him, he did come to our aid four times despite our opinion on him killing criminals. The very least we can do is give him a benefit of a doubt."

Nora and Pyrrha nodded slowly as Ren sighed. "Your right Jaune." Ren told him. "Maybe I'm letting my opinion of him blind me. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a reason to be wary of him, he is spying on us." Ren reminded him.

"I know. But there is something about him that I want to know before we condemn him as an enemy." Jaune explained.

"Really what?" Pyrrha asked.

"How did he become the way he is now." Jaune told him.

"What do you mean?" Ren asked the blonde sword wielder.

"What caused him to become a criminal killing vigilante? To become so distrustful of other people? What caused him to become Agent-A?" Jaune listed the questions that burned into is mind.

The others just stared at their blonde leader as they considered his questions.

"Those are...really good questions." Ren admitted before frowning. "But I doubt that we'll ever be able to find out because the only person that can tell us that is Agent-A himself. And as we already know, he doesn't trust us at all."

This didn't dissuade Jaune at all. "Well no matter what point of view we have of Agent-A, every hero has an origin story."

Pyrrha nodded before looking clock, showing that it was getting late. "Maybe we should continue this in the morning. I think we had enough adventures for one day." Pyrrha stated. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement before they headed to their room, hoping to soon get their answers they seek concerning Roman Torchwick, and maybe even Agent-A.

The following morning Team JNPR woke up refreshed and had breakfast that Ren prepared for them. After their meal, they all went down to the hotel lobby. After bidding Nora and Ren goodbye, Jaune and Pyrrha headed towards the exit to continue their search for Roman while the others stayed for their shift.

"OK, we tried looking around areas where we thought Roman would possibly be, but we had no luck so far." Jaune summarized as they left the hotel.

"While that's true, we now know that Roman has been hiring other criminals to do his dirty work for him." Pyrrha pointed out. "So it's only a matter of time before one of them shows themselves to us."

Jaune nodded at her logic. "Yeah, let's hope that they show up soon so we can find Roman and the scale." Jaune said, wishing to get this offer with so they can start looking for their friends and Team CDNL.

Unbeknownst to them, one of the villain's hired by one of their foes was watching them closely through his red Y shaped visor from the roof of one of the tall buildings.

"So they are two of my targets huh? The blonde one doesn't seem that powerful but from what Roman told me in my briefing, the red haired girl has magnetic abilities." Y-irus said to himself as he rubbed his chin. "That means to my powers wouldn't be that effective against her...so I guess that I'm going to have to target the hyperactive hammer girl and Mr. Pinkeye."

The mercenary took his eyes off Pyrrha and Jaune and turned his attention towards the hotel. He raises his hand and waves it around for a few moments before clutching his fist, chuckling madly as he felt the power within his body stir and got to work.

Back in the hotel Ren was behind the front desk waiting for anyone who wanted to check in or out of the hotel. We was in the middle of wondering if Jaune and Pyrrha will have any luck in finding anything out when his thoughts were interrupted by the phone ringing. Gently picking up the phone, Ren held the phone handset to his ear.

"Hello, this is Internal Green Hotel. This is Lie Ren, how may I help you?" Ren said, repeating what James told him to saw when answering the phone.

"Well..." A gruff voice said from the other end of the line. "If you can find it in your heart to die, that would be swell."

Not expecting that, Ren couldn't help but quirk his eyebrow. "Could you repeat that?" Ren asked the person on the phone.

Before he could get an answer, the phone handset started to shake before eight mechanical legs popped out of its sides and the cord attached the handset unplugged itself from the housing and wrapped itself around Ren's arm. Ren's eyes became the size of plates as the spider like handset attempted to claw at his face with its legs. Thinking fast, Ren pulled out Stormflower and shot it point blank, causing the cord to loosen as the body of the phone dropped to the ground dead.

"What in the name of Oum was that?!" Ren exclaimed as he tried to calm his racing heart. Hearing a noise to his left, Ren slowly turned to his left to see that the computer monitor was starting to shake before legs popped out of its sides like the handset did moments before. One big difference was that the screen started to flash before a red, pixilated Y took up the screen.

"That's a very nice gun you got there." The monitor said, having the same gruff voice as the man that Ren was just talking to. "I think I'll take it as a souvenir after I kill you."

Reacting fast, Ren started to swipe at the possessed monitor with the blade of his gun, only for the bulking computer monitor to weave and dodge each swing. After a few moments of this, Ren started to get frustrated.

"Where's Pyrrha when you need her?!" Ren yelled before the monitor dodged again before leaping at the magenta eyed teen.

The spider monitor collided with Ren's chest, causing Ren to fall to the ground from its weight. Ren cursed under his breath as the robotic spider legs tried to impale his eyes, only to be stopped when Ren grabbed it's legs with both his hands. Not seeing any other way to incapacitate the mutant computer monitor without removing his hands from its legs, Ren reared his head back and bashed his head into the screen, making the computer to make a dying screech before it shut down.

Ren sighed in relief as he tossed the monitor to the side and got up, noting that his head had a gash from the impact and glass.

"I don't know what's happening, but I doubt this is the end." Ren said to himself as he decided to regroup with Nora.

The girl in question was busy mopping the wood floor a floor above Ren when she noticed a vending machine filled with different sodas.

"Hmm." Nora hummed in thought. "I haven't tried the grape soda yet...I think I have enough money for this." Nora reached into her pocket and pulled out some money that that she got from the paycheck that James gave her. She inserted the two dollars into the machine and pressed the button with a picture that showed a can of grape soda and eagerly waited for the soda goodness to vend.

After a minute of waiting, Nora started to get impatient. "Oh come on!" Nora yelled. "I gave you the two dollars, so give me my SODA!" Nora finished her demand by kicking the vending machine. The second her foot made contact with the machine with a loud thud, the machine started to shake.

"Opps." Nora said, worried that she might have kicked it too hard and broke it. Her worries were pushed aside when the vending machine started to contort. Within the span of a few seconds, the machine became a robot that was three feet taller than Nora and had a cannon right arm, which it pointed at her head while its red eyes glared her down.

Nora was silent for a moment before a look of glee overtook her face. "Awesome!" Nora exclaimed, not fearing for her life like a normal person would in her situation.

The mechanical cannon bot was about to fire it's cannon at Nora, only to stop when the orange hair girl leapt over it and landed on its back, holding on as it thrashed around like a cowgirl on a bull. Having enough of this, the robot aimed its cannon at her, only for her to grabbed the cannon at the last moment and directed it towards it's torso as it fired, obliterating it and causing cans of soda and coins to spill out.

Grinning in victory, Nora jumped off the robot as it fell and picked up a can of grape soda that was by her feet. She opened the can and guzzled it down until there wasn't a drop left and let out a satisfied sigh.

"That's some good soda." Nora praised the grape goodness before hearing some screaming that was coming towards her from behind. She turns around to see that James was running away from two spider monitors that were chasing him. James tripped and the spider bots started to slam themselves into his sides.

"SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!" James yelled as he tried to brace himself from the attacks.

Nora's face grew serious as she took out her war hammer and rushed at the possessed monitors, swinging Magnhild at one spider bot and sending it crashing to a wall then bringing the hammer on top of the other one, crushing it like the bug it was imitating.

Once they were gone, Nora went to her boss's side and helped him up.

"Thank God you were here Nora." James said with gratitude. "I didn't think I would have made it otherwise."

Nora beamed at him. "Don't mention it; it was all in a day's work."

James smiled before frowning. "We need to alert everyone else immediately and evacuate." James told her. "We need to get to the first floor intercom system so I can warn everyone in the building."

Nora Nodded and helped James towards the elevator and pressed the button to call the elevator. After a few moments, the elevator arrived the doors opened. What neither of them expected to see in the elevator was Y-irus standing there with his arms folded over her chest.

"Going down?" Y-irus asked as he unfolded his arms and pointed downwards.

James's eyes widen in fear at the mercenary in front of them while Nora's eyes widen in glee because she recognized him as the guy from the wanted poster that she thought looked cool.

"YOU! You're the one that held those children hostage two days ago in New York!" James hissed in anger.

"Well, well, well. Looks like news traveled fast." Y-irus said in a pleased tone, clearing liking the fact that people knew what he'd done.

"Why are you here?!" James demanded to know.

Y-irus humphed. "Well if you must know, I'm here to take out my four targets, one of them being the brat that's holding you up." Y-irus stated as he pointed at Nora, who pouted.

"I am not a brat!" Nora argued, her previous good mood dampened. James immediately pushed Nora behind him in an attempt to shield her from the machine manipulating man.

"I don't know what your problem is with her, but I'm not going to let you kill my employees!" James bravely told Y-irus. In response, the mercenary chuckled darkly.

"I'm afraid that's not one of your options." Y-irus told him as one of the monitor bots walked out of the elevator and stared up to the two. The screen turned blank before turning back on, showing that all the patrons and other employees were being held hostage by various electronics that were converted by the mercs power.

"You see, I have quite a number of hostages in my grasp. And if you two make any stupid moves, they all will die." His threat hung above their head as James growled at him while Nora glared.

"You demented demon in human skin! Why must you keep involving innocent people in your greedy schemes?!" James yelled.

"That's the life of a mercenary for you my friend." Y-irus offered with a shrug. "So why don't you drop your weapon and get in the elevator.

Nora sneered, a look of rage in her eyes. "Monster!" Nora spat before dropping her weapon, not wanting to risk the innocent lives of her coworkers and customers. Underneath his helmet, Y-irus smirked.

'Good, that's one down.' Y-irus thought before moving out of the way so the two can get into the elevator.

While the attack on the hotel was happening, Pyrrha and Jaune have been searching for criminals a little over an hour. When they reached a graveyard, Jaune decided that they could take a rest after walking for so long.

"You know...after a long time of searching you think we would have found at least one person by now." Jaune commented sourly as he leaned on a half-wall.

"Don't worry Jaune, all we need is to get any information about Roman from one of the villains and we will be good to go." Pyrrha assured him.

"Yeah, as long as they're not a pain to fight then it shouldn't be too bad." Jaune said as he started to survey the graveyard, stopping when he noticed two familiar figures in front of a tombstone.

"Isn't that Ed and Violet?" Jaune narrowed his eyes in hopes to see them better.

"Ed?" Pyrrha asked, turning around to see where Jaune was looking at, seeing them almost immediately. "We haven't seen him in a while. I wonder what he's doing here?"

"Maybe we should find out." Jaune suggested.

"Yeah." Pyrrha agreed. They both started to walk towards Ed and his daughter, not knowing that Ed was closed as memories of a tragic event started playing in his mind.

-Memory Start: 20 years prior-

A ten year old boy with black hair stood in the door frame, a horrified expression on his face. He was staring down at the body of a man on the floor, blood pouring from bullet wounds on his chest. The man's eyes were blank and lifeless, dead before the boy could find him.

"D-dad?" The young Edward Charles said with barely restrained tears as he slowly approached the body of his father and kneeled next to him, using his hands to shake the body. "Dad, please wake up."

A cruel laugh caused Ed to look at the man who murdered his father, who was a black haired man with blue eyes. He was currently smirking at what he just done as he cocked his gun and pointed his weapon at Ed's head.

"Don't cry kid, you're about to be reunited with your father in a few seconds." The murderer said, getting ready to shoot Ed in the head. Ed said nothing and simply cried, but not because he was scared but because his loving father was murdered by the man in front of him. After staring at each other for a few moments, the older man's smirk faltered as he lowered his gun.

"There's no point in killing you, it's not like you'll be able to do anything to me, especially after I get my prize." The man said before turning away from Ed then walked away, leaving Ed to mourn his father as he held onto to his cooling body.

-Memory End: Present day-

Ed slowly opened his eyes and stared at the tombstone of his father.

Alexander Charles

March 15, 1962-April 21, 1996.

The world will never be the same without you.

After reading those words, Ed craned his head to stare at Violet, who was look at the tombstone.

'Violet...I promise you that I won't let you go through the same pain that I went through when I lost my father to that man.' Ed silently promised her.

Violet, who felt her father's eyes on her, turned her head to face him.

"Daddy, what was Grandpa like?" Violet asked. Ed gave her a sad smile.

"Where do I start? Your Grandpa was-"

"HEY ED!" Jaune yelled to get their attention, interrupting Ed's story about his father. Ed and Violet quickly turned around to see Pyrrha and Jaune approaching them.

"Pyrrha? Jaune? I didn't expect to see you two here." Ed told them, genuinely shocked by their sudden appearance.

"Hi you two." Violet greeted, relieved that the crazy orange haired girl wasn't with them.

"Hey Violet." Jaune greeted back.

"What brings you two here?" Ed questioned them.

"We were just walking around when Jaune noticed you two. So what are you doing here?" Pyrrha asked.

Ed's happy expression quickly turned sad. "We're visiting my father's grave." Ed answered solemnly.

"Oh man, we didn't know! We're sorry." Jaune quickly apologized for interrupting their alone time at their loved one's grave.

Ed shook his head dismissively. "It's alright, we don't mind." Ed assured them.

This calmed Jaune down. "So, how have you been since we last saw you?"

"Things been normal." Ed told him. "My store is still doing good, getting plenty of customers and all that."

Pyrrha hummed in thought, getting an idea. "So Ed, if you don't mind me asking, do you know anything at all about Agent-A?" Pyrrha asked the black haired man, figuring that it was worth a shot.

Ed gave her a raised eye brow at her. "All I know is that Agent-A is a man out for revenge." Ed answered her truthfully.

"Revenge? For what?" Pyrrha continued to question, only for Ed to shrug.

"No one really knows but from how brutal he attacks criminals, I'd have to guess that a criminal might have taken someone important to him. Someone that he truly cared about more than anything else in the world, only for that person to be ripped away from him by a common criminal with a gun." Ed answered, giving them more information than they would have gotten otherwise from anyone else.

Jaune couldn't help but feel sorry for Agent-A. "That's...really sad." Jaune stated with a sad frown.

"Yeah, you could say that." Ed agreed, his face also drooping sadly. Suddenly, Ed felt something vibrating in his pocket. He sticks his hand into his pocket and pulls out whatever was vibrating, which were his glasses.

"Uh...Jaune, Pyrrha I have to take this call, can you two look after Violet for a moment?" Ed asked them.

"Yeah, sure thing." Pyrrha answered.

Ed smiled in gratitude before walking away from them and putting on his glasses.

"This isn't a good time right now, what is it?" Ed asked somewhat angrily.

"Ed, he's here in the city." The glasses told him urgently.

"Who?"

"Y-irus."

Ed froze after hearing that villain's name, his eyes wide.

"Where is he!?" Ed demanded through grinding teeth, his anger seething.

"He is currently at the Internal Green Hotel." The A.I. told him.

"Why the hell would he be there of all places?" Ed asked.

"I believe his sudden interest in the hotel might coincide with the fact that those teens you're so interested in is currently living there." The glasses speculated.

"If that's the case, then there wouldn't be a surprise there. But do you know what he's doing?" Ed questioned.

"Give me a moment to hack into the camera feed." The glasses told him as it started to hack into the security cameras inside the hotel. The A.I. flipped through the various cameras until it hacked into a camera had feed that showed the hotel's occupants being corralled into the foyer of the building.

'Interesting.' The A.I. thought to itself until the elevator chimed and opened, revealing Nora, James, and Y-irus getting out. 'Even more interesting.' The A.I. left the camera to report its findings.

"He seems to be holding the people in the hotel hostage." The A.I. told him. "And before I stopped my surveillance, I saw that Y-irus had personally captured James and Nora Valkyrie."

Ed cursed under his breath. "Alright then, scan the hotel and then shut yourself down. I don't want him to end up taking you over and using you to tell him my location and secrets."

"I understand sir." The glasses agreed before following Ed's order, doing a quick scan of the hotel and shutting down.

Once the A.I. was powered down, Ed pocketed the glasses and walks back to Jaune and Pyrrha.

"Something urgent just came up and I need to leave now." The older man told the teens and his daughter. "Pyrrha...Jaune, can you two please take my daughter home while I deal with this?"

Pyrrha and Jaune nodded. "Yeah, we'll be happy to take her home for you." Jaune told him.

"It's the least we can do for helping us when we needed help." Pyrrha explained.

Ed smiled. "Thank you too." The black haired man crouches down to Violet's height. "Violet, I need you to go with these two, I'll be back when I get back." Ed told his daughter. Violet smiled even though her eyes looked sad.

"Okay daddy, but promise that you'll be okay." Violet told him, knowing that whatever he's about to do is most likely related to crime fighting.

In response, Ed smiled and chuckled, placing his hand on her hand and ruffled her hat gently enough so her hat doesn't fall off and reveal her ears.

"I'm always careful." Ed told her before lifting himself up and facing Jaune and Pyrrha. "Thank you again, I'll see you later.

Pyrrha and Jaune nodded before they turned and walked away from Ed with Violet in tow, who stopped and glanced at her father one last time with concern before turning back around and following the two teens.

Ed stared at their retreating forms before turning the opposite direction and heading towards his car. Once at his car, Ed opened the truck and pulled out his suitcase, opening it to reveal his Agent-A outfit. The electronic store manager couldn't help but glare at the white shirt with his signature red A on it.

"It's time to end this... Andrew Maguire."

Back at the hotel, Ren was having trouble fighting against the almost endless army of evil appliances that were chasing after him. He was running as fast as he could in a hallway as a group of 10 robotic spider computers were chasing after him. He made it to a four way intersection and turned left, only to be met with a small platoon of robotic toasters with tank like wheels for legs.

"You have to be kidding me!" Ren yelled as the Tank Toasters bowed their heads and shot at him with flaming toast. After dodging the bizarre projectiles, Ren turned right and was about to run right. He immediately paused when he saw that his path was once again blocked, this time with flying fans with creepy faces and fan blades that were going faster than they should have.

"Seriously? Now they're starting to look like something Nora would dream up!" Ren commented as he slowly backed into the middle corridor, which was a dead end. The many evil machines quickly blocked his only way out. With no more ideas, no way out, and starting to feel tired, Ren loaded up his guns and prepared for one hell of a fight, one that he would tell his children and grandchildren in the years to come.

While Ren was struggling, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Violet were still walking toward Ed's and Violet's house. They were still a few blocks away from their destination.

"So Violet, I have a question that's been on my mind since we saw you at the graveyard. Who's your mother?" Jaune suddenly asked.

Violet shrugged. "I don't know, I never really knew my mommy or what happened to her." Violet replied. "Daddy doesn't know either."

"Um, how is that possible?" Jaune couldn't understand how Ed didn't know who her mother was or what happened to her when he was Violet's father.

"Because he kind of adopted me." Violet answered.

"You're adopted?" Pyrrha couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah, he saved me from a very cruel man before he adopted me." Violet told them. Jaune and Pyrrha were stunned.

"Wow, I would have never imagined Ed as a fighter." Jaune admitted.

"I hope that man is behind bars now." Pyrrha stated, angry that someone treat someone so young that poorly.

"He's dead." Violet said without thinking about it. Her eyes widened after realizing her mistake while Pyrrha and Jaune looked at her in shock.

"What did you just say?!" Pyrrha asked her.

"I...uh...I mean." Violet fidgeted, clearly looking uncomfortable. Pyrrha's eyes soften.

"Violet, did Ed kill that man?" Pyrrha asked the little girl, trying to sound as gentle as possible. Violet looked conflicted, debating about whether or not to tell them the truth.

"N-no." Violet lied. Pyrrha easily saw through the lie, feeling a sense of foreboding.

"I'm getting a bad feeling from all this." Pyrrha whispered to herself.

"It's not what you think; daddy is a really good man." Violet quickly argued.

"Uh, maybe we should get in the house." Jaune said nervously, hoping to change the subject before they caused a scene in public. Violet looked relieved and nodded in agreement before they walked up the steps to her house. The white haired cat girl pointed to the mat, Jaune nodded in understanding before folding the edge of the doormat to reveal the house key. Jaune scooped it up and unlocked the door and opening it to allow the girls to get in before going in himself and shutting the door behind him.

The second she took a step into the house, Violet rushed towards her room. Pyrrha decided to join her and apologize for making her uncomfortable. Jaune, however, decided to go to the living room and see what was on TV while he waited for the girls to emerge from Violet's room. Picking up the remote, the blonde warrior flipped through the channels before finding the news channel that was broadcasting a breaking news report of a all to familiar hotel with police vehicles parked in front of the building. Jaune's eyes widen, immediately recognizing the building in the report.

"Hey, isn't that the-" Jaune said before the News reporter started to speak.

"Breaking news from outside the Internal Green Hotel, police are on the scene where Y-irus, a mercenary that held a bus of school children hostage only two days earlier, is currently holding the patrons and employees of the hotel hostage. We don't know what he hopes to accomplish by the act, but the officers are trying their best to approach the building to rescue the hostages."

Jaune stood up, a panicked look on his face. "Oh Oum! We need to get over there!" Jaune exclaimed as he dashed out of the living room and headed towards where he watched Pyrrha and Violet go minutes before.

When he made it to Violet's door, he opened it to reveal that Violet was sitting on her bed without her hat, both her and Pyrrha were playing with pony dolls with smiles on their faces.

"Pyrrha! The hotel's been attacked by a mercenary and everyone in it has been taken hostage!" Jaune told Pyrrha. Pyrrha was instantly on her feet with a fierce stare on her face.

"We need to get there fast!" Pyrrha stated. But before she could rush past Jaune, he held his hand out.

"No, I need you to stay here and make sure nothing happens to Violet." Jaune told her. Pyrrha looked at him in shock.

"Are you sure about this?" Pyrrha questioned the young leader.

"Yeah, we can't just leave Violet alone while we're out fighting and her father is elsewhere." Jaune pointed out. "Plus I'm the leader and it's my responsibility to make sure Nora and Ren get out of there alive."

Pyrrha stared at him uneasy for a moment before nodding slowly. "Alright, but promise me that you'll be careful." Pyrrha told him. Jaune smiled at her concern and nodded.

"Alright, I'll do my best." Jaune promised her.

"Do you know the mercenary's name?" Violet suddenly asked. Jaune thought for a moment.

"I think that the news person said that it was Y-irus." Jaune tried to remember, not noticing the horrified look that Violet gave him. "Now that I think about it, I think we saw him on that wanted poster yesterday."

Violet stopped paying attention at that moment, realizing where he father was most likely at. 'Daddy please...don't do it.' Violet silently prayed.

Violet's inner thoughts were interrupted by Jaune, who walked out the room.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it." Jaune said as he reached the front door. "Hopefully." Jaune silently added as he left the house and sprinted towards the hotel to save his teammates and hostages.

-At the Internal Green Hotel-

Thirty police officers and three SWAT teams had the building surrounded, ready to storm the facility at the opportune moment and rescue the hostages within. Another police cruiser drove up to the other police vehicles and parks right next to one. The driver's door opened and a brunette haired white woman with a few strands of grey hair stepped out of the car. She wore a regular police outfit with a white shirt instead of black and had a badge over her left breast pocket that said Chief Sparrow. Her dark sunglasses hid her hazel colored eyes that had an edge to them from years of being on the force.

"Officer Carter! What situation do we have here?" Chief Sparrow barked to one of the officers that was already on the scene.

"Ma'am, we have a dangerous mercenary holding the patrons and employees hostage inside the hotel." Officer Carter answered without hesitation.

The chief rolled her eyes. "It's Y-irus isn't it?" The brunette Chief of Police asked, getting a nod from Carter and causing her to sigh. "Of course, only that red and yellow swine would pull this over and over again like a broken record."

"What should we do Chief?" A second officer, named Drake, asked as he walked up to them.

"Simple, wait for him to show up." Sparrow stated nonchalantly.

"The Dark Vigilante?" Carter asked.

"What? Did you think I meant Dark-Warrior?" Sparrow asked sarcastically.

"No ma'am!" The officer answered. "But can we really trust Agent-A with this?" Carter couldn't help but question.

"Trust me, he'll be able to handle this a lot better than we can." Chief Sparrow stated.

"No offense Chief Sparrow, but I don't think we should but our trust in someone that takes justice in his own hands." Officer Drake stated with a scowl.

"I trust him more than I do you." The Chief made a jab at the officer. Drake did not take kindly at the blatant insult to his capabilities.

"Well I won't!" Officer Drake snapped at her before charging at the building with his gun at the ready, a battle cry roaring from his throat. From within the building, Y-irus was watching the police officer foolishly rushing in guns a blazing through one of the monitors, a smirk present underneath his helmet.

"And the first one will bite the dust." Y-irus started before raising his left hand and making sweeping motions.

Outside, one of the police cruisers shuttered before its form shifted, causing the charging officer to stop and witness the transformation. The rear axle extending and becoming the legs of the robot while the rear wheels became the feet on the ends of the legs. Unlike the rear axle, the front axle pierced through the front wheels and became arms with skeletal like fingers. The main body of the car stayed relatively the same.

Officer Drake looked on in horror as the monstrous vehicle stood up, allowing him to see the human like face that formed on the belly of the police. The sight frightened the officer who started to step backwards from the hulking Cruiser bot in an attempt to get away, only for him to trip and fall on his caboose. The robot approached the downed officer until it was basically on top of him, it's skeletal like arm reared back, ready to impale him.

"So ends another prideful idiot." Chief Sparrow said emotionlessly as she stared at the spectacle before them.

"Are we just going to stand here while Drake gets impaled?!" Officer Carter yelled. As soon as he asked that a lone shot was heard. Suddenly a bullet tore through the robot's face, hitting it right in between the eyes. The newly created bot stumbled backwards until it fell onto its back, rocking back and forth like a upside down turtle before it stopped moving. From a nearby roof, Agent-A lowered his sniper rifle.

"Right on schedule." Chief Sparrow sighed in relief. "Almost thought that Drake was actually going to get it."

From his spot on top of the building, Agent-A slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and jumped off the building, landing right next to Drake.

"and once again, I had to save your sorry hide after you rushed in without thinking." Agent-A chastised Drake. "Why do you insist on being an idiot Drake?"

The officer glared at Agent-A and got up. "I had everything under control here!" Drake angrily told the vigilante. "We don't need your help!"

Agent-A hummed. "I see...from my angle it looked like you were about to die in a brutal fashion." Agent-A disagreed.

"He's right Drake." Chief Sparrow stated as she, alone with Officer Carter, approached the duo. "If Agent-A didn't interfere when he did, then I would've had another officer to bury. So please don't lose your cool next time."

Officer Drake gave her and Agent-A a hard stare before clicking his teeth together. "Alright fine, have it your way." Drake told them.

"Now that that nonsense is over, I need all of you to stay out of the way while I deal with some business in there." Agent-A stated before turning towards the hotel. Drake wasn't having any of that.

"Now hold on for a damn minute! Like hell I'm going to trust you to do anything in there!" Drake yelled, yelping when Agent-A quickly turned around and pointed his gun at Drake's face.

"I have no time to deal with your stupidity Drake! If you get in my way then I will kill you without hesitation!" Agent-A told the officer, a razor sharp edge to his tone.

Drake's eyes widened in terror as he backed away from the irritated vigilante, knowing that he wouldn't threaten a non-criminal like that unless he was in a really horrid mood. Seeing that the hot-headed and impatient police officer submit, Agent-A held his gun to his side and ran towards the Internal Green Hotel with a fiery hatred in his eyes.

Meanwhile, Y-irus was leaning back on James's chair in his office with his feet resting on his desk. Behind the mercenary was Nora and James, who were both tied up and gagged.

"I have to say, this has got to be one of the easier jobs I took." Y-irus chimed, humming a happy tune before spinning the chair around to look at Nora, who glared hatefully at him. "And I'm going to get very good pay for eliminating you and your three friends."

Just then, the door to the office slammed open and a Spider Monitor walked in while dragging a heavily beaten and unconscious Ren behind it. Y-irus spun back around to see what the robotic spider dragged in and smirked underneath his helmet.

"And that is two members of your group that I've taken down." The mercenary said with mirth. "And to think, if you all stayed together, it wouldn't be this easy for me to do this." Y-irus stared to laugh manically, thinking that he had already won this fight. His pre-victory laughing fit was interrupted when another Spider Monitor walked in and started to make clicking noises.

"Ah yes, if your here then I assume that the other two are coming?" Y-irus asked his creation. The monitor quickly shook its body no, causing Y-irus to get aggravated. "Then why are you here, wasting my time!" The red and yellow mercenary demanded. Its screen lit up before showing that Agent-A was already in the building and destroying the robots effortlessly left and right.

Y-irus's breath hitched in his throat as he felt shivers of fear crawling up his spin. "Oh God no...NOT NOW!" Y-irus started to panic.

Nora and James exchanged confused looks, wondering why the previously cocky mercenary would be so scared.

"If he finds me, then I'm as good as dead!" Y-irus stated as he started to pace the room. "I might be able to take on Dark-Warrior, but I sure as hell not going to take on that whack job! I don't care what that insufferable women says or does to me, that man will do far worse than she ever will!" Y-iris's expositional rant was abruptly interrupted by his ringing cell phone. He quickly picked up his phone and answered it.

"Now is not that time!" Y-irus yelled into the phone, allowing all his frustrations out.

"Well don't you sound like a bundle of sunshine?" Roman said from the other side of the line. "Are you having trouble kill those meddling kids?"

"No, but I have two of them in my mercy." Y-irus told Roman. "And I don't care to do so now, Agent-A is here and I need to get out of here before he finds and murders me!"

"Interesting." Roman replied, taking note of how panicked the mercenary sounded. "It seems like you two have a history, does he have a grudge against you or something?"

"That's the thing; I don't know why he's so fixated on me so much! Whenever I'm nearby, he comes at me without warning like a heat seeking missile!" Y-irus quickly explained. "And most of the times that I'm in this city, I haven't even done anything yet to warrant his attention!"

"Well boohoo for you then." Roman told Y-irus.

"Can't you send me some back up at least?!" The yellow and red clad mercenary asked.

"Sorry Yellow, can't do that." Roman said with mock sympathy.

"Why not?!" Y-irus exclaimed furiously, outraged by his employer's answer.

"You see Y-irus, you're a hired mercenary. And as such, we expect you to be able to do your job without additional help. If we had to send someone to bail you out, then we might as well have sent one of our people over their instead of you. So you can stay there and do your job, stay there and get killed, or run away and be hunted down by us." Roman explained, giving Y-irus his options.

Y-irus was silent, his anger boiling like molten lava bubbling to the surface. The two Monitor Spiders started to shake before being crushed like a can of soda as Y-irus's rage made him lose control of his power for a moment.

"Very well, I'll stay and complete my job." Y-irus relented, still seething from being threatened yet again. "But don't expect me to stick around after this job is finished. I will not accept any more jobs from you or your boss."

This time, Roman was silent for a moment. "Just get the job done." Roman ordered before hanging up.

While the conversation between Roman and Y-irus was finishing up, Jaune had finally made it back to the Internal Green Hotel.

"Thank Oum that I made it." Jaune said to himself as he looked at the various police officers and blockades, looking for an opening so he can get through without being obstructed. Jaune saw his opening between two police vehicles that were left unguarded and made a run for it, running past the cars and towards the hotel entrance despite the police force yelling after him.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Chief Sparrow yelled after the teen, trying to stop him from entering the crime scene.

"I'M SAVING MY FRIENDS! DON'T TRY TO STOP ME!" Jaune yelled back, not even stopping to talk to her properly.

"DON'T TRY TO BE A HERO!" The chief of police was ignored by the blonde teen who ran into the hotel lobby and looked around before running towards the elevator. He spammed pressed the button, only to realize that it was broken. After cussing, Jaune ran towards the stairwell and went up the stair. When he made it to the floor his team was staying on, he heard gunshots and slowly peeked out the door to seeing Agent-A duel wielding pistols and shooting the small army of robotic appliances that challenged him.

After he was done with Y-irus's minions, Agent-A felt someone's presence behind and spun around and pointed his gun at Jaune causing the younger male to tense. He quickly lowered it when he realized that it was just Jaune.

"What are you doing here Arc?" Agent-A inquired in annoyance.

Jaune sighed in relief after the gun was lowered and he was out of danger. "Nora and Ren are still in the hotel and I need to make sure that they get out of here safely." Jaune explained to the darkly dressed man. Agent-A stared at Jaune, frowning as he ran his words through his head.

"You should get out of here while you still can, or you'll have more then that despicable piece of trash of a mercenary to deal with." To emphasis his point, Agent-A pointed one of his guns behind him and pulled the trigger, shooting through a Monitor Spider that was about to lunge at the criminal hunter while his back was turned.

Despite his warning, Jaune wasn't willing to back down. "I don't care that it's dangerous, I'm not leaving without my friends." Jaune argued. "Besides, if we can get to Ren and Nora, we can go after Y-irus togeth-" Jaune's words died on his lips when Agent-A suddenly lifted his gun and aimed it at Jaune's head again.

"Listen and listen good, I'm after something that is more important to me than anything else in this world. I'm not going to let you, or anyone else take it from me!" Agent-A furiously said.

Jaune stepped back in fear. "And what's that?" Jaune carefully asked, not wanting the vigilante to shot him. Agent-A's black eyes bore into Jaune's blue eye as he uttered a single word, a word that described the entire reason for his existence as the vigilante.

"Revenge."

Jaune looked at Agent-A in confusion. "I don't understand, why are you going this far for revenge?" Jaune asked.

Agent-A stared at blonde in front of him before taking a deep breath before sheathing his gun into its holster. "We're done here, I'm not going to babysit you this time."

Agent-A pushes past Jaune and started to head to the third floor where James's office was. Jaune quickly followed Agent-A up the stairs.

"Are you deaf or something? I said beat it!" Agent-A shouted behind him, not slowing down his ascent to the next floor. Jaune shook his head.

"I might not know what you were talking about when you said you wanted revenge, but I'm not going to stand around and do nothing when my friends are in danger!" Jaune told Agent-A. "I'm going to save them even if I have to go through you to do so!"

The vigilante stayed silent, starting to respect the young teen's determination even though he wants nothing more than for the blonde warrior to leave him to his business. They silently continued their trek until they reached the third floor door, carefully opening it and looking around for any hostiles. Surprisingly, the floor was devoid of any of Y-irus's creation. They crept out of the stairwell and rushed to James's office door and stood on either side of it.

The two stared at each other before Agent-A nodded, reaching for the doorknob with his left hand and cracked it open then looked inside, his gun ready to shot the yellow mercenary on site. The black haired man eyebrows furrowed when he saw James, Nora, and Ren tied up with duct tape over their mouths while Y-irus was nowhere to be seen.

'I would have thought he would be here.' Agent-A thought to himself as he opened the door wider and signaled Jaune to get in. Jaune nodded and slid into the room with Agent-A following. Jaune immediately rushed towards the three hostages, James and Nora squirming frantically as if they were trying to tell the duo something important while Ren was still unconscious.

"Don't worry you three; we'll get you out of here." Jaune promised as he rushed over and started to untie them while Agent-A stood a foot behind him, feeling that something was off from how easily they were able to get to the three. He merely twitched and shut his eyes when he heard the tell tale clicking of a gun hammer behind his head.

'And there he is.' Agent-A thought as Y-irus stepped away from his hiding place behind the door.

"Well, well, well. It looks like I finally have you in my mercy Agent-A!" Y-irus stated as he pointed Ren's gun at the back of the black haired man's head.

Jaune had just taken the tape off Nora's mouth when Y-irus started to gloat.

"BEHIND YOU!" Nora yelled in warning. Jaune turns around to see that Y-irus was about to shoot Agent-A with Ren's Stormflower. The leader of Team JNPR mind flashed back to the crumbling body of the Silver Statue and then to Android-A's mangled body.

'No, not again!' Jaune yelled desperately as he reached out for Agent-A, not realizing that his body was glowing faintly yellow light and that they same light started to engulf Agent-A as Y-irus pulled the trigger. The dust infused bullet speed towards Agent-A as the light was trying it's best to cover Agent-A's body, completely covering the vigilante's body a millisecond before the bullet collided with it and reflected back to Y-irus.

The mercenary knew something was terribly wrong when the bullet somehow reflected off Agent-A and hit his shoulder, going through the armor and hitting flesh.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Y-irus howled in pain as he clamped his hand over his wound. Agent-A, getting over his initial shock at the phenomena, took this opportunity to turn around and grab Y-irus arm and kneed him in the elbow, causing him to drop the weapon before grabbing him and slamming him onto the floor. He proceeded to pick him up and slam him into the wall repeatedly.

"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR TWENTY YEARS!" Agent-A yelled as he dragged the mercenary out of the office while Jaune untied Nora. They wasted no time in following the dark haired vigilante to witness what they could only call torture.

Agent-A punched Y-irus in the gut and bends him over to knee him in the face before throwing him to the ground and stomping his foot on the yellow and red clad man. Agent-A bends over and rips the helmet off Y-irus's helmet off to reveal a older man with brown hair that was almost completely grey and blue eyes.

"It's high time for you to pay for your sins against me!" Agent-A growled in a almost primal manner.

"I don't understand! What the hell did I ever do to you!?" Y-irus asked with a pained cough. Agent-A didn't say a word, quickly removing his mask and glasses to reveal that he was Edward Charles.

"Do you remember me now you bastard!?" Ed shouted at the downed man's face. Y-irus examines Ed's face for a moment, his eye browed knitted together in confusion until his mind flashed back to the face of the child who he spared after he had killed his father. At long last, Y-irus finally understood why Agent-A hated him so much.

"You...You're the son of Alex Charles!" Y-irus said in shock.

Because of Ed's anger blinding him, he didn't notice that Nora and Jaune had seen everything, including him unmasking himself. To say that they were shocked was an understatement.

"Ed...is Agent-A?!" Jaune whispered to himself in surprise. Nora, on the other hand, felt her mind freeze at the revelation.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Nora repeated over and over again, her eyes wide.

"Yes, I'm the very same boy that you orphaned after you murdered my father in COLD BLOOD!" Ed aimed his gun to Y-irus's temple. "And now I will have my revenge!"

Y-irus felt true terror clenching his heart as his past flashed before his very eyes. "OH GOD, DON'T DO IT! I'LL DO ANYTHING!" Y-irus begged for his life. Unfortunately for him, the man with the gun wasn't going to listen to his pleads.

"It's time to say goodbye. Andrew Maguire."

"ED STOP!" Jaune shouted, snapping the vigilante out of his blind rage.

"Not now, not when I'm so close to making him pay for ruining my life!" Edward said in a low tone. "Ever since he killed my father, my life has been hell. I was dumped into a orphanage where the monster that called himself the owner would beat the children that failed to do their chores, and I was his favorite punching bag. After six horrid months I finally had enough and left that godforsaken place and swore on my father's grave that I would kill the monster that killed him and anyone that was like him so no more innocence people will have to suffer like I did." Ed poured out his pain for the teens.

"Please listen to the kid." Y-irus pleaded again, this time a little bit more calmly. "I know that I screwed you over, but if it wasn't for me you would have been just another miserable loser trying to get by in the world. If I didn't do what I did, you wouldn't be one of the most feared people in the world."

His words struck a chord in Ed. "I maybe feared, and yet one of my most precious person in my life would still be dead. And the only thing that will finally bring me piece-" Ed glared down at the mercenary. "-is your death."

Ed was, yet again, seconds away from ending Y-irus's life when Jaune said the one thing that could stop him.

"Ed please! If you won't do this for yourself, then at least do this for Violet!" Jaune told him, hoping that it will stop Ed.

Ed's eyes widen at the mention of his daughter, momentarily moving the gun barrel off Y-irus's head. "Violet?"

"Yeah, she told us how you once saved her from her abusive father and took her in as if she was your own. You're a hero to her Ed, you have to see that. If you end Y-irus's life now, then what will that tell Violet? That she was wrong to think that you were hero? That you're not the kind of man she thought you were? Please think about how Violet will react to this!" Jaune tried to reason with the older man.

For a few, long moments Ed just blankly stared at Jaune then at Y-irus. A moment later Ed's hand slackens and he steps off Y-irus as a lone tear caressed down his face. This was the first tear Edward Charles shed since he made his vow on his father's grave.

"Fine, you win." Ed said in an emotionless tone. Y-irus, on the other hand, felt as if he was saved from death row.

"Oh thank Go-" Y-irus was interrupted by Nora, who kicked him on the side of his head, knocking him out cold. With his consciousness gone, his power over the machines instantly diminished and the robot fell apart. The hostages were surprised and overjoyed that their time of terror was over while outside, Chief Sparrow smiled.

"I knew you'd pull it off." The female chief said to herself before she grew serious. "EVERYONE INSIDE NOW!" The police officers wasted no time in storming the building to evacuate the hostages and arrest Y-irus.

Ed stared out the nearby window and watched them enter the building before going over to pick up his disguise and covering his face.

"The police are on their way, so I better get out of here while I still can." Agent-A said before walking away.

"Hang on Ed!" Jaune called out, stopping the man in his tracks.

"What?" Agent-A asked.

"This needs to stop now, so here's the deal. If you help us catch Roman without killing him, then we won't utter a word about who you really are." Jaune stated. Agent-A just started at the blonde, eyes quirked upwards before he laughed.

"I'm actually impressed; I never would have thought you had it in you to come up with something like that." Agent-A admitted, earning a suave smile from Jaune.

"What can I say, I'm full of surprises." Jaune told him.

Agent-A gave him a smile before walking over to one of the windows, opens it, and slides out. Jaune and Nora stood there and stared at the window he slid out of for a moment.

"I still can't believe that Ed was Agent-A." Nora stated.

"Yeah...aren't we forgetting something?" Jaune asked seconds before they heard something breaking in James's office, reminding Jaune of a very important detail that slipped their minds.

"Oh crap we forgot about James and Ren!" Jaune exclaimed, running into the room with Nora following behind with en urgent expression. At the same moment six police officers, including Chief Sparrow, rushed out the stairwell and towards Y-irus.

Chief Sparrow was expecting to find the mercenary in a pool of his own blood with a bullet through his head. But to her surprise, not only was he alive, but he was m*** in pain.

'Why and how is he still alive?" Chief Sparrow questioned herself before ordering the officers to place Y-irus under arrest. As they were dragging Y-irus down the stairs, the chief couldn't help but ponder the oddity that she just saw.

'This is something he doesn't do, Agent-A always kills murderers no matter what. What could have stopped him from doing that to Y-irus of all people?' This question plaque her all the way back to the police station as she tried to rationalize why Agent-A would spare someone he absolutely hates.

Back at Ed's house, Pyrrha and Violet were watching the news together when they announced that the hostile situation was over and there was no casualties.

"That's a relieve isn't it?" Pyrrha asked Violet who was sighing in relieve.

"Yeah it is." Violet agreed, mentally hoping that because they claim that there was no casualties meant that her dad didn't do something drastic.

They went silent when they heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Pyrrha stated, getting up and walking towards the front door before opening it to reveal Ed.

"Good afternoon Pyrrha." Ed greeted her with a smile as he stepped inside the house.

"Good afternoon Ed, how did your business go?" Pyrrha asked the black haired man.

"It went pretty well." Ed told her. "So how is my daughter?"

"She's doing fine, she's in the living room right now."

Ed smiled. "That's good to hear. Maybe you should get back to the hotel now that everything is cooled down a little bit. I'm sure your friends would be happy to see you." Ed told her.

"That would be lovely." Pyrrha said before she walked through the door as Violet ran out of the living room and gave her daddy a hug. Pyrrha paused to smile at the touching moment before she started to walk away.

"Oh, and Pyrrha!" Ed called out to the red haired warrior.. "Don't worry about Roman Torchwick, we'll find him for you." Pyrrha came to a screeching halt and spun around to look at Ed in shock.

"Wait, What?!" Pyrrha exclaimed. But by the time she asked her question, the door was already shut, leaving the huntress-in-training alone and confused.

-In a prison far away-

The last nine days had been a living hell for Howard Jackson, the once great master thief Mr. 10. When he was brought in by the police, the paramedics tried their best to save his right hand but the damage done to his wrist was too severe and they were forced to amputate it before it became infected. After two days of recuperating from the surgery in agony, Howard was sent to prison where he was constantly tormented by the other inmates who all pointed out that his once great criminal life was over and how he failed miserably. All this hell was caused by Agent-A and Pyrrha Nikos.

At the moment, Howard was laying on his prison bed alone in his cell staring blankly at the ceiling. He raised his right arm up to stare at the stump that was once housed his hand, and angry glint in his eye. "I swear that if I ever get out of here, I'll butcher Agent-A and that red-haired b*** like they butchered my hand!" Howard vowed vengeance, not knowing that he currently had someone listening to his vow.

"I believe that I can help you." Someone with an Italian accent said from outside his cell. The thief froze, not recognizing that voice as any of the guards that patrol this section of the prison.

"Who said that?" He sat up and looked out the cell to see a pale man wearing a black suit with a red V sewn on his right shoulder and black boots. On top of his red hair he wore a black military captains hat that hide his eyes.

"That would be I, my good fellow." The sharply dressed man confessed.

"And who the hell would that be?" Howard asked, feeling impatient.

"I am known as Diavolo." The now named Diavolo answered. Howard's eyes widens in realization.

"You! You're the assistant of Vincenzo the Devil of Crime!" Howard said in awe. The assistant smiled.

"Good, I am glad to hear that you're as smart as your reputation would suggest." Diavolo praised as a nearby guard heard them talking and approached him.

"HEY! What are you doing over here!?" The guard said, stopping a foot from Diavolo. Howard started to sweat while Vincenzo's assistant remained calm.

"Nothing at all, just talking to my friend here." Diavolo told the guard. The guard examined Diavolo before narrowing his eyes. "You don't work here! Who are you?!" The guard asked as he tried to subtly reach for his metal baton.

"Ah a good question my good sir, but I have a more important one to ask you." Diavolo told the guard.

"Yeah? And what would that be?" The guard had his hand on his baton and was ready to take it out and use it. He froze when Diavolo pointed a gun to his head.

"How embarrassing would it be to be killed by your own gun?" The black suited man asked, giving the guard enough time to process what he said and look at his gun holster. Once the guard realized that his gun was gone, he snapped his head to look at Diavolo, who was grinning like a demon.

"See you in the next life." The assistant to the Devil of Crime said before pulling the trigger and shooting the guard in-between the eyes. Once the carcass dropped to the ground, Diavolo bent over and grabbed the keys off the belt and unlocked the cell door.

"Now let us make our escape." Diavolo told Howard, who readily agreed and sprinted out the cell.

"Thanks for the rescue." Howard thanked the red haired man as they started to run towards the exit.

"Don't thank me yet my friend. This rescue comes with a price." Diavolo told him. Howard immediately became suspicious

"And what do you want from me in return?" Howard asked with narrowing eyes, only for Diavolo to shake his hand.

"Don't worry about that right now, all will be explained when we are in a more...hospitable place." Diavolo explained right as they reached the outside of the prison and the alarms started to blare loudly.

"Damn it! They must have found the body!" Howard cursed, causing Diavolo to chuckle.

"You don't need to be tense Mr. 10, our ride is already here." True to his word, a red helicopter with a black V painted on the side approached them. Once it was close enough they jumped into the opened side and closed it as the helicopter flew away from the prison and over the ocean.

Howard sighed in relieve. "Thank God that we got out of there." Howard said happily before the pilot chuckled.

"You're not out of the woods yet Card Boy." The pilot turned his head around to reveal that Roman was flying the helicopter.

"Roman Torchwick?! What are you doing here? You know how to fly a helicopter?" Howard asked the Remnant born criminal.

"The reason I'm here is not important, but what is important is the reason why you are here. That reason being that I need you to go to Japan for me for an important mission." Roman explained.

"Oh HELL no! The last time I associated with you I ended up having four brats chasing me when I was conducting a heist and distracting me before I had my damn hand mangled!" Howard yelled. "There is no way in hell that I'm going to do anything else for you!"

Just then Diavolo's cellphone started to ring and he answered it, talking to whoever called him before reaching over to give Howard the phone. "It's for you." Diavolo told him. Howard hesitantly grabbed it with his left hand and held it to his ear.

"Hello? Who is this?" Howard asked.

"Listen to me and listen to me good!" The voice on the other side of the line demanded. "You can either do this job and get a good reward for it or I'll have Diavolo toss you over board!" The master thief paled, knowing who he was talking to.

"V-Vi...Vincenzo!" Howard named the crime lord, feeling very small and nervous at the moment.

"Yes, that is me alright." Vincenzo told him. "So which will it be, do a good paying job, or swim with the sharks?" Howard gulps, knowing that he didn't really have a choice.

"A-alright I'll do it." Howard decided. From his base, Vincenzo grinned under his Oni mask.

"Good, you will get your orders when the chopper land." Vincenzo told him before hanging up. Diavolo took the phone from Howard before placing something else into his hand. Howard looked at it in confusion before realizing that it was his belt with his decks.

All the while, Roman was smiling as he flew. "Everything is coming together quite nicely."


	7. Chapter 7

**Due to some technical difficulties, we were forced to separate this chapter into two. We apologize for any inconveniences this might have brought to aeaders of this story and we hope that you enjoy the chapters regardless. ~ darkwarriorthecursedhero and Firetsune1**

Chapter 7: War between Twins

Within hours of the hotel incident, all the pieces of electronic that belonged to the hotel was cleaned up. When all of Team JNPR were back in their room and Ren regained consciousness, Jaune and Nora eagerly told them what happened and what they learned. Ren and Pyrrha were extremely shocked by the revelation that the kind man that helped them on their first day on this world was also the brutal Agent-A.

They were currently sitting at the small kitchen of their hotel room, drinking different drinks while Jaune and Nora were finishing up explaining everything.

"This is...hard to process." Pyrrha stated as she absentmindedly sipped her coffee. Thinking to herself about how this made what Violet told her and Jaune about how Ed killed the guy that was abusing her make sense.

"I can't believe it either." Ren said in agreement, blankly staring at his reflection in his tea.

"I almost didn't believe it and I was there!" Nora added, drinking one of the sodas that James allowed her to scavenge from the vending machine she had to put down, saying that it was the least he could do after she saved him before. This soda was the third one she drank so far.

"I'm just glad I was able to convince him not to kill Y-irus." Jaune said, a cup of ice water sitting in front of him. "Plus I was able to convince him to spare Roman if we keep his identity a secret."

Ren smiled, taking a sip of his tea and letting the lukewarm drink warm his stomach. "That's nice to know, we should probably check on him tomorrow and see if there's anything we should know about criminals that Roman might ally himself with." Ren stated as he took another sip of tea.

Pyrrha nodded in agreement. "You're right, he's lived here a lot longer then we have and considering what he does, I bet he knows some places we can look."

"Sounds like a plan!" Jaune drank the rest of his water. "Let's head to bed now. After everything that happened today, that's the only place I want to be right now."

"That's probably a good idea. Nora what do you-" Ren glanced over at Nora, stopping mid sentence when he saw that her head was already resting on the counter, fast asleep while cradling her now empty can of soda. Ren smiled at Nora.

"Well that answers the question for us." Pyrrha said as she finished her rosemary tea and got up. She went over to Nora and picked her up bridle style.

Jaune and Ren said goodnight before retiring to their room, finally ending the long day.

After a good night's rest, the team woke up and got ready for the day ahead of them. While they were eating, James came along and told them that Nora and Ren could take the day off because they needed to get new computers and phones to replace all the ones that weren't salvageable. The four were happy about this because that allowed them all to go see Ed, though Nora seemed a bit more excited to see Violet.

Ten minutes later they left the building and decided to head towards Ed's electronic store instead, figuring that he would be there by now. It took them a little over an hour to arrive at Ed's shop. They poked their heads through the opened door to see that Ed was indeed there and was currently helping a beautiful woman with what looked like a projector.

"-and after you do that, you turn this to get the projection to focus it." Ed finished explaining how a projector works. The women smiled at Ed, using her hand to move stray hair away from her eye.

"Thank you for explaining all this for me, this is the first time I ever used a projector like this." The women explained.

Ed smiled back. "Don't mention it, it's what I do." Ed said, before he started to blush. "So uh...are you seeing anyone?" The women looked at him in confusion before she put the pieces together.

"I'm sorry, you're a nice guy and all but I'm not really looking to date anyone at the moment." The women told him as gently as possible.

Ed's heart sank to his stomach. "Oh...I see." Ed said as his face went blank and stayed silent for several moments. The women stood there for a few seconds, unsure on what to say or do. Eventually she decided that she should just leave.

"Um, okay then. Thanks again for the instructions." She scooped up her projector and quickly went out the shop, passing the four without glancing at them in her hurry to get away from the awkward silence.

Once she was gone, Ed back slumped and started to smack his forehead on the counter repeatedly with the blank look still on his face.

The team couldn't help but wince after one particularly loud and painful sounding thud.

"Well that ended badly." Jaune said, feeling sympathy for Ed and knowing his pain.

"Is this really the same man who can kill murderers without hesitation?" Ren couldn't help but whisper just in case someone was close enough to them to hear.

"Looks like woman are his weakness." Pyrrha observed. Nora was too busy laughing at the situation to add anything. At that point, they decided to enter the shop right as Ed stopped smacking his head on the counter. Ed looked up to see them walking in and straightened himself up.

"Uh...hi your four...what brings you guys here?" Ed said, trying to look like nothing humiliating just happened but failing because his head was red from the counter abuse.

"Ed...is everything alright?" Jaune cautiously asked the glasses wearing man. Said man tried to smile to show that he was okay, but before long he frowned and sighed, looking as miserable as he was.

"Not really, just another failed attempt to get a date." Ed finally confessed.

"Come now, it can't be that bad." Ren said to cheer the older man up.

"This was the 351st time this month alone that I was rejected by someone." Ed clarified.

"Yikes!" Pyrrha stated what they all were saying.

"Yeah, I sometimes can't believe my horrible luck with women." Ed said sadly before forcing a smile. "So what can I do for you three?"

They saw through his attempt to change the subject and went with it. "We were wondering if you found anything new out about Roman." Ren explained.

Ed shook his head. "I'm afraid that I hadn't had any luck with him. All I know is that It's like he just randomly came into existence from thin air and is already a big shot." Ed told them.

"I thought so." Pyrrha said disheartenly.

"The only thing I can think of is to wait until another big shot criminal that's associates with him to appear and beat the information from them." Ed described his plan of action.

"That's probably for the best." Jaune agreed before smiling. "But while we're here, why don't I help you with your problem."

Ed looked at the blonde with skepticism and confusion.

"And what problem would that be?" Ed asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Getting you a date." Jaune told him. The room felt like the room temperature just dropped 10 degrees.

"Oh Oum." Ren whispered with a horrified expression.

Jaune ignored what Ren said and draped his arm over Ed's shoulder. "So this is how we'll get you a girl...through online dating." Jaune said, pausing in the middle for dramatic effect. The older man looked at Jaune with uncertainty.

"Online dating? Are you sure this is going to work." Despite his uncertainty, Ed felt a spark of hope.

"I'm certain that we'll get you together with some guaranteed." Jaune stated with confidence. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha leaned towards each other.

"This is going to end in tears." Ren predicted.

"I bet five bucks that this will end horribly for Jaune." Nora whispered so Jaune and Ed couldn't hear them.

"Ten dollars that this will end horribly for Ed." Pyrrha replied, knowing that Jaune wasn't the best person to get dating advice from.

Nora grinned. "You're on." Nora and Pyrrha shook on it while the vigilante disguised as an Electronic store Manager and the Blonde leader made plans that will land Ed a date.

Somewhere in the city, a new coffee shop had recently opened up and was already brimming with business. Some of the people where standing in line to order their drink while others sat at tables outside, drinking their caffeine drinks happily. Among the patrons sitting outside the shop were three individuals sitting at a table.

The first person was wearing black jeans and had a loose chain wrapped into a ring hanging out of his pocket. Over his torso he wore a red hoodie jacket with a skull with a lightning bolt shaped crack on top of the skull on his left sleeve. The hood was draped over his head, hiding his face from view. The second one was wearing blue jeans and a dark blue hoodie jacket just like the first one, except her had a peace sign on his right jacket sleeve. He also wore his hood over his head that hide his face. The last person was a young brown haired woman with blue eyes and glasses that looked to be 23 years old. She wore a green jacket over a blue tee-shirt along with blue jeans and black shoes.

The woman had a laptop in front of her and was currently typing away really fast.

The person in the red hoodie was getting irritated by the constant noises of her fingers hitting the keyboard.

"Sydney, what the hell are you even doing?" The red jacket man rudely asked.

The woman, now known as Sydney, didn't even bother look up from her computer. "Nothing really Akeiro, just messaging my folks back home and signing up for online dating." Sydney replied as she continued to type away.

The young man in the blue jacket tilted his head in confusion. "What's…online dating?" The young man asked.

Sydney giggled as she closed her laptop. "It's simple really Carzon, online dating is a way for people to get together and learn about each other without being face to face." Sydney explained.

Akeiro scoffed as he stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. "I really don't understand why you humans even bother to date each other." Akeiro voiced, finding the whole concept ridiculous. Sydney shook her head and smiled knowingly.

"Just believe me, one day you both will fall in love with the girls of your dreams" Sydney predicted.

Carzon sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm sorry Sydney; I just don't get what you're saying."

Sydney sighed. "Akeiro, Carzon there's so much that you two need to know if you ever want to understand Earth." Sydney told them. Akeiro was silent for a moment before he raised his hand, revealing his three fingered metal hand. He took his raised hand and reached for the edge of his hood and lifted it enough to show Sydney his metal face and the large singular blue eye in the middle of his head. The center of his eye had a large x with a small circle in the middle.

"It's easy for you to say Sydney. You've been here since you've been born while we been on this damn rock for only six months and we barely understand the differences between you human genders." Akeiro said angrily.

Carzon started to panic. "Brother! You need to be careful or people will notice you!" Carzon pleaded with his brother. Sydney gently placed her hand on Akeiro's arm.

"He's right; we can't allow you being seen and being taken by the government." Sydney tried to reason with the irate alien.

Akeiro pulled his hood over his face and stuffed his hand in his pocket.

"Not my fault that humans are racist against people like us." Akeiro said nonchalantly. Sydney looked at him sympathetically.

"Their not racist against you, they just don't understand Aliens yet is all." Sydney tried to defend her species.

Akeiro just shrugs. "Whatever." The robotic alien replied standoffish as a male waiter carrying a cup of mocha latté

"Here you go ma'am, one medium sized mocha latté." The waiter said with a smile as he placed the cup in front of her and walked.

"Thank you sir." The brown haired woman called out as she lifts it up to her lips and sipped it, sighing in content. Just then, her laptop started to beep. Sydney's eyes widen as she hastily placed it on the table and opened her laptop.

After she woke up her computer, she looked at her profile and smiled. "Yes! I already have someone who's asking me out!" Sydney exclaimed happily.

Akeiro and Carzon looks over her shoulder to see a picture of a black haired man with glasses who was smiling awkwardly at the camera.

"...If that's the kind of smile that you find attractive, then I fear for your kind." Akeiro bluntly stated. Sydney swatted his arm; ignore the pain in her hand from hitting his hard body.

"Oh shut up." Sydney playfully scolded him.

"Guys please, we shouldn't make a scene." Carzon nervously said as he started to look around to see if anyone was looking at them.

Sydney rolled her eyes. "Everything is going to be fine Carzon." She assured him before looking at the man's profile. "Says here that his name is Edward Charles, and he actually lives in the city! He wants to meet me at General Burgers at 5."

"Well I can't see how this will go wrong." Akeiro sarcastically said as he stretched his arms.

"Well...I'm sort of nervous about meeting new people." Carzon admitted timidly.

Sydney started to shake her hands in front of her. "No, no. I mean he wants to meet me for a date." Sydney quickly explained. "So it's just going to be me and him."

"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" Akeiro demanded, crossing his arms.

"What I want you two do is stay here until I get back." Sydney told them. "I don't want you two to go wandering around the city and getting lost."

"Okay Sydney." Carzon happily replied while Akeiro scowled. Sydney gathered up her laptop and drink, sliding her computer in her computer bag on her side.

"Alright you two, I'll try not to be gone too long." Sydney stated before giving the red jacket wearing alien a stern look. "And Akeiro, don't get into any fights."

"I make no promises." Akeiro quickly replied. The young women gave them one more glance before walking away.

The duo sat there until Sydney was no longer in sight. "Well I'm bored, let's go." Akeiro told his brother in a bored voice as he stood up and stretched.

"But...Sydney said to stay here." Carzon tried to reason to his more hot-tempered brother.

"Since when did I ever listening to what she said?" Akeiro challenged his counterpart.

"Well...um...ah." Carzon tried to think of a time that Akeiro ever listened to any request she gave him, only to sigh when he remembered that he never did once.

"Yeah, thought so." Akeiro turned and started to walk off. "See ya; I'm going to look for something entertaining to do."

Carzon sat frozen to his seat, conflicted on whether or not he should tell him to come back or go with him.

"AKEIRO!" Carzon yelled as he leapt out of the chair and bounded towards his brother, deciding on tagging alone to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble.

From a far-off distance, two figures were watching their movements with rapt attention. Without a word, they two strangers started to follow the two aliens, making sure to keep a safe distance from them.

Back at Ed's house, Ed was starting to feel nervous after Sydney agreed to meet him.

"Alright, now that the date is set up and you look presentable, all you need to do is make a great first impression." Jaune couched Ed while they were in the living room. After Jaune helped Ed set up an account to one of the dating websites, they went through the list of women that were looking for someone when they came across. Ed, still feeling hesitant, wasn't sure that this was a good idea but was convinced by Jaune to go for it. After sending a message to the brown haired girl, it only took a few minutes for her to reply and accepted the date offer. After that, Jaune basically dragged Ed home to get him ready for the date. So now, an hour later, Ed was ready for the date.

"Kid, I've seen things that you wouldn't believe. I fought against various criminals that thought they were hot stuff to deranged murders that were the things of nightmares and won. I think I can make a decent first impression." Ed told them, an aura of confidence radiating off him in waves.

"And yet you have trouble talking to beautiful women." Pyrrha pointed out.

"Yeah well...over the years I kept mostly to myself. Can you blame me?" Ed asked her.

"You're going to be just fine." Jaune assured him. "I can guarantee that this date will go perfectly for you, you just need to bring up some cool things about yourself."

Ed smiled at Jaune. "Your right Jaune, I just need to- Wait where's Violet?" Ed asked, remembering that Violet was next to him not even five minutes ago.

"Ohmygoshyou'rejustthecutestthingintheworld!" Nora said quickly. "I'll never let you go again!" Everyone turned to the corner of the room to see Nora was currently hugging the life out of Violet, the young cat girl's face pressed to the side of Nora's chest.

"Save me." Violet cried, wanting nothing else but to get away from the crazy lady.

"Nora, put her down." Ren said sternly.

In retaliation, Nora flashed him with a dose of the infamous puppy dog eyes. "But she looks adorable." Nora whined, tightening her hold on the five year old.

"You're choking her!" Pyrrha exclaimed. True to her words, Violet's face was starting to turn blue.

"But-" Nora started to say.

"PUT HER DOWN!" Everyone in the room yelled in unison. Nora reared back at everyone yelling and slackens her hold on Violet.

"...Fine." Nora said with her eyes casted downwards. Violet took this opportunity to get out of Nora's limp hold and rushed to her father, hiding behind him while eyeing Nora nervously.

"Nora, I know that you love children, but you can't just keep hugging them to death like that." Ren reasoned with her.

"...Alright." Nora replied without any live behind it.

"Since we have that out of the way, let's get you to the restaurant." Pyrrha told Ed, not wanting to dwell on what happened and her friend's lifeless look.

"Sure." Ed replied with a mixture of eagerness and nervousness. "But who's going to watch Violet?" Nora's eyes brightens and was about to raises her hand. "Pick m-" "Anyone except Nora." Ed quickly interrupted, knowing that Nora might end up killing her daughter with hugs if left alone with her.

Nora's rekindled happiness was quick to extinguish, until Ren intervened on her behalf. "Both me and Nora can watched her." Ren told Ed, hating to see Nora so miserable.

The result was instant, Nora's heart soared in glee while Violet's heart dropped in dread. "Please don't leave me with her!" Violet pegged both Ren and her father.

Ren went over to Violet and crouched to her height, smiling reassuringly to her. "Don't worry; I'll make sure that Nora doesn't come near you." Ren told her.

Violet felt more at ease at Ren's words.

"Alright, I'm going to trust you two with to look after Violet for me." Ed told Ren and Nora, his eyes lingering on Nora. "...If you make my daughter fell uncomfortable again and there will be a red stain for the city to clean up." To illustrate his point, Ed gave Nora the Evil Eyes look that caused everyone in the room to freeze like stone statues except for Violet.

"O...O...Okay!" Nora stuttered out, her eyes bugged out in fear.

"Now I understand why he's called the Dark Vigilante." Jaune whispered to Pyrrha who nodded.

Violet was easily able to put on a poker face and refrained from laughing, knowing that her daddy was lying and was just trying to scare Nora.

Though she wasn't going to tell them that anytime soon.

"Anyway, we should get going." Ed stated. "You three take care." Ed, Pyrrha, and Jaune made their way out of the house and headed towards the restaurant, Leaving Violet alone with Ren and Nora.

"So what do you want to do Violet?" Ren asked the white haired girl.

"How about Hide and Seek? This house should be big enough to have a few good hiding spots." Nora said calmly, any trace of her previous fear appearing to be gone. While she was skeptical about Nora's intentions, Violet wouldn't lie and say that she wasn't interested in playing Hide and Seek.

"...Okay." Violet replied.

Meanwhile at the Tartarus Club, Roman was sitting in his chair and smoking while having a conversation with the Malachite sister, a serious look on his face while Melanie looked less then pleased.

"So what your telling us is that you want Militia and I to deal with that loser team now?" Melanie asked the orange haired criminal in front of them.

"Precisely!" Roman replied, getting up and walked to the window in the room to stare out in towards the city with a tired look. "They've been sticking their noses where they don't belong and not only defeated Mr. 10 with the help of Agent-A, but they managed to take down Android-A and that good for nothing mercenary as well!" Roman slammed his fist on the window sill, causing the window to vibrate from the shock. "At this rate those brats and that vigilante is going to find us and screw everything up! The only good thing to happen news is that there have been some rumors in the grapevine that there are two particularly interesting criminals that have been spotted in the city. And from what I heard, they are some real pieces of work."

"What do you mean?" Militia asked in concern. Roman didn't answer, instead he moved towards the desk and grab two files and handed it to the twins.

The twins each took a file and opened them at the same time, looking confused by what they were looking at. The file that Melanie was looking through had a picture of a robotic life form that had one, large white eye with a line going across it vertically. This robot was mostly wearing black street clothes and sported metallic Mohawk on top of his head. His fingers were pointed and sharp with spikes protruding from his knuckles.

The profile that Militia was leafing through showed a similar robotic life form as the one in Melanie's file, as if they were siblings. Unlike the other one, this robot's eye was black and had a cross with a circle in the center of his eye instead of white and was wearing a white tuxedo with a black dress shirt underneath the tux and a white tie. A white top hat was balanced on top of his head. In his right hand was a can with a gun shaped handle.

"Who are these two weirdoes?" Melanie asked, not able to make neither heads nor tails from the two brothers. For once in the meeting, Roman smirked.

"You see, their names are Kasai and Shinshi. They are both known for committing a large array of different crimes and proud of it.

"And what makes them important?" Militia asked. Roman took his cigar out and tapped it a few times to get the ashes off before returning it to his mouth.

"It's not them that is important, but their creator." Roman explained as he pulled out a third folder and opens it to reveal a wearing a white costume covering his entire body with an open black jacket covering his torso. On his face was a red V shaped visor. "This, my fine little lotus's, is the creator of Kasai and Shinshi. His name...is Light-Warrior." Roman paused for dramatic effect. "Sound familiar?"

What Roman was expecting was some sort of surprised reaction, even if it was one of mild shock. To his disappointment, the only reaction he got from them was a confused look from Militia and a blank, bored look from Melanie.

"Who?" Melanie asked in an unenthusiastic tone.

Roman simply stared at them, completely dumbstruck at the fact that they didn't know. "Weren't you two listening to what the statues were saying?!" Roman demanded.

Melanie shrugged. "All I heard was 'Blah blah blah they can talk?! Blah blah blah pure hearts." Melanie told him, showing that she really wasn't pay attention to the statue's conversation with the teams.

Roman's eyes twitched dangerously. "I'm starting to wonder why Junior even brought you with us." Roman stated with sigh.

"Because we're hot." Melanie said.

"And he knows it." Militia added. "So why is Light-Warrior important?"

"Well...if you two actually bothered to pay attention, the statues stated that the two warriors, Light-Warrior and Dark-Warrior, had a connection to the scales." Roman explained. "So it wouldn't be bad to assume that this so called Light-Warrior could help us get the scale pieces. So if we can get his creations, they can lead us right to him and he can help us find the other pieces."

The twins nodded at his thought process.

"But before we get in contact with them, why don't you go and take care of our pressing pest problem?" Roman told them. They nodded and left the room, hoping to get this done fast before it became a headache.

At the local Four Star General Burger, Ed was sitting at a table patiently waiting for his date to arrive and nervously hoping that nothing goes wrong during the date. A few tables away, Jaune and Pyrrha were sharing a table together to make sure that Ed's date goes well.

Pyrrha turned and gave Jaune an unsure look. "Are you sure that this is going to work?" Pyrrha voiced her concern.

Jaune waved off her worry dismissively. "This is definitely going to work." Jaune assured her. "We even went over a few lines that he should say to her and everything. Nothing is going to go wrong."

Pyrrha smiled and nodded, not sharing her true thoughts to him. 'This is going to be a disaster.' Pyrrha thought to herself.

They heard the door opened and Jaune and Pyrrha looked up to see a brown haired girl walking in and looking around.

"Isn't that her?" Pyrrha whispered to Jaune.

"Yeah, that's her." Jaune remembered her from her profile picture.

Sydney looked around for a few moments before her eyes connected to Ed's eyes. She smiled and went over to the electronic store manager.

'Okay Ed, remember what Jaune told you.' Ed rehearsed in his head as Sydney stopped at his table.

"Are you Edward Charles?" The brown haired woman asked Ed, who nodded his head.

"Y-yeah, I'm him." Ed said before he stood up and held out his hand a blush on his cheeks. "But y-you can just call me Ed."

Sydney giggles and took his hand and shook. "Hi Ed, I'm Sydney Ohana. Nice to meet you." Sydney and Ed broke hand contact and sat down.

"And here...we...go." Jaune whispered, happy that everything is going okay so far. The blonde teen was sure that nothing could possibly go wrong.

At the same moment of when the date started, Akeiro was stomping around the city in hopes of finding something to do. Carzon was following behind him and calling out his name in hope that his brother will stop before they end up getting separated. However the red jacket wearing alien robot didn't stop or even slow down and decided to ignore his brother's call all together.

"Akeiro! Can you stop for just a second!" Carzon begged.

"You can stop walking, but I won't" Akeiro told him, walking faster.

"What are you even looking for?!" Carzon asked his brother as he started to sprint to keep up with the hot-tempered Akeiro.

"Someone to fight." Akiero stated.

Carzon sighed. "Why is it that you want to fight everyone every time we go places?" Carzon asked. "All you want to do is deck someone in the face. There's never a peaceful moment with you. We go to the movies; you try to punch the ticket guy. We go to the zoo then you go and punch the lion tamer. Then there was the time we went to the pet store to get Sydney a kitten and you wanted to pun-" Akeiro stopped and spun around that Carzon almost ran right into him. The red wearing alien pointed at Carzon with an angry stare.

"I'll let you know that fur ball had it coming!" Akeiro growled.

"And if I didn't get in the way, you would have seriously injured that poor defenseless kitten!" Carzon shot back. "You ended up cracking my eye!" Carzon reaching up and pulling his hood back enough to show Akeiro his large red eye with a circle in the middle with a line going down.

"Hey, at least you didn't die." Akeiro shrugged dismissively. "Plus we were able to repair the crack.

"My point is that you always want to fight and ruin every moment of peace and quiet that comes our way. Can't you just enjoy them while we can?" Carzon asked Akeiro.

Akeiro was silent for a moment as his body started to shake. "Have you forgotten why we're on Earth in the first place? Or why we are the last of our race? And why the freaking FBI and bounty hunters are after us?" Akeiro started off asking him in a deadly calm tone but started to sound more and angrier after each question.

Realizing that his brother was about to blow his top, Carzon tried to pacify him. "Akeiro I know you're angry about all of that, trust me I'm not thrilled about all that happening to us either, but-"

"BUT NOTHING!" Akeiro finally got fed up and yelled. Carzon nervously looked around to see people staring.

"Akeiro, you need to calm down." Carzon said as calmly as possible.

"NO! YOU CAN GO AND ENJOY YOUR DAMN PEACE ALL YOU WANT YOU COWARD!" Akeiro yelled before turning away from Carzon. "I'm out of here." With that, the red jacket clad alien stormed off, leaving his brother alone to watch him leave.

"...Akeiro?" Carzon whispered sadly, holding out his hand towards his brother's retreating form.

The peaceful blue jack wearing Alien didn't have time to be sad when he heard two sets of steps heading towards him before stopping.

"Hey! Isn't he that Shinshi guy Torchwick was talking about?" Militia asked her twin sister.

Carzon turns around and spots two similar looking girls a few feet away from him. They both were the same height with a pale complexion, long black hair, and green eyes. One of them was wearing a red dress while the other had a white dress on.

"He kind of does...but wasn't he supposed to be wearing a white hat and tuxedo?" Melanie answered before asking her own question.

"Maybe Roman made a mistake." Militia theorized.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Melanie agreed.

At this point Carzon, who was just standing there as the twins bantered with each other, decided to grab their attention. "Um...who are you two?" Carzon timidly asked the two members of Junior's group.

Militia turns to face Carzon with a smirk. "Oh I'm sorry, we're the Malachite twins-"

"-and we're here to break you into pieces." Melanie finished her sister's sentence. Carzon was still as a rock at their declaration.

"W-WHAT!?" Carzon yelled as he took a step back.

"You heard us bolt brains." Militia rudely told him, her and her sister walking slowly towards him menacingly without bothering to draw their weapons.

"So be a good robot and break for us." Melanie demanded. Carzon eye widened in fear as he took a few more steps back, waving his arms in front of him frantically.

"Oh man...can we talk about this for a moment?" Carzon nervously asked in the hope that they were in a talkative mood.

"Nope." Carzon's hopes for diplomacy were dashed the second that the twins simultaneously answered him without hesitation.

'Oh geez, oh geez, oh geez!' Carzon frantically thought when he felt something brush against his leg. He quickly looks down to see a small black and white cat rubbing it's head on his leg before it looked up at him with its yellow eyes.

"Meow." The cat meows as it cutely demanded to be picked up. A demand that Carzon was more than willing to fulfill.

"Perfect!" Carzon said gleefully as he crouched down and gently scooped up the cat. The twins gave him confused looks as he lowered his hood.

"What is he doing?" Melanie asked her sister.

"Maybe he plans to use that poor cat as a shield." Militia theorized with disgust written all over her face.

"...That punk, I wouldn't even sink that low." Melanie growled. Their assumptions on what Carzon was planning were, however, debunked when they noticed something was off about the alien robot. The first thing they noticed was that his metal hands and feet became more skeletal-like and the tips of his fingers and toes became blue tinted claws. From the sides of his head, two point cat ears sprung out while a silvery tail with blue spots poked out from his backside. Carzon blinked his eye, his pupil turning into a slit when he opened it back up.

Once his transformation was complete, Carzon placed the cat back on the ground. "You should run along now little fella." The neko-fied Carzon told the cat. "things are about to get intense." The cat started up at Carzon for a moment before taking off, putting a lot of distance between it and the fight.

By the time Carzon turned to look at the twins, they had taken out their weapons and were on guard.

"Seriously, what the hell just happened!" Melanie exclaimed, now feeling unsure about the situation.

"I don't know, but I'm not backing down!" Militia stated with her claws ready to tear into the peaceful alien in front of her. Carzon was also ready for a fight, taking on his fighting stance with his claws poised for attack. The twins and Carzon stared each other down in silence, silently daring the other to make the first move. After a minute, Carson broke the silence.

"Time to make like a cat and-" The Malachite twin's bodies tensed, ready to counter attack. "-and skedaddle." Carzon turned around and ran away as fast as his legs could carry him. The twins just stared at his retreating form, dumbstruck.

"Did...did he just run away from our fight?" Militia asked in a whisper. Her sister's turned red in rage, angry that she got all hyped for a fight for nothing.

"GET BACK HERE!" Melanie yelled before charging after the runaway Alien.

"SISTER! WAIT UP!" Militia yelled as she ran after her sister. They were all unaware that they were being watched by two figures on the roof that they were previously stander beside. These very same duo were also watching Sydney, Akeiro, and Carzon at the coffee shop and were the ones that the Malachite twins learned about hours before.

"I tell ya, we should've jumped that Akeiro bloke while he was still here." Kasai said in an Australian accent before smashing his fist on the edge of the roof, making a sizable dent in his fist's wake.

"Patience dear brother, you will get your chance." Shinshi told his brother in a posh English accent while twirling his cane with his fingers. "For now, how about you go after the red one, I will stay here and observe this chase?"

"And why are you so interested in that chase? Did one of those girls "meet you fancy?" or something?" Kasai said in a mock British voice. His brother couldn't help but scoff.

"Me? Interested in one of those tarts? Very unlikely my dear chap." Shinshi stated. "But I am interested in the fact that they appear that they were looking for us is all."

"Yeah, what about it?" Kasai asked.

"I can't really place my finger on it, but I can't help but feel that something is odd about those two. The fact that they're apparently looking for us and those unique weapons they wield intrigue me." Shinshi admitted to Kasai, who simply shrugged.

"Whatever you say mate, I'm going to go and beat the living hell out of Akeiro. After that, I'm going to rip off his head and keep it as a trophy." Kasai stated, feeling his bloodlust raising. Shinshi rolled his eye at his brother's antics.

"Very well, off you go then." Shinshi told him. "And try not to embarrass our master like you did last time." Kasai glared at his brother before shrugging it off.

"It won't matter either way, once I dealt with that little red prink, the boss will see me as the strongest of his creations. Then when he takes over the world, he's going to make me his right hand man!" Kasai declared before he ran towards the direction that Akeiro went, jumping from roof to roof.

Shinshi just shakes his head at his brother before he too starts to jump rooftop to rooftop to chase after the twins and Carzon, his curiosity consuming him.

Back at the burger restaurant, the date between Ed and Sydney had hit a snag. Due to Ed's bad social skills, he wasn't able to strike up a conversation without sounding nervous.

Sydney wasn't doing so well either and looked very nervous. Other then Akeiro and Carzon, she doesn't really hang out with that many guy and doesn't know what to do. From their table, Jaune and Pyrrha were watching them with dismay.

"This...isn't going anywhere." Pyrrha said mostly to herself.

"Seriously, doesn't Ed have any hobbies besides being a vigilante?" Jaune asked.

"Well you're the love expert here." Pyrrha said with a hint of sarcasm. "What should we do?"

Jaune closed his eyes and folded his arms, trying to think of a plan to save the failing date. After two minutes of thinking, Jaune's forehead started to crease and he started to get frustrated. After sighing, Jaune got up from his seat. "Give me a few minutes Pyrrha, I'm going to step out and get some fresh air."

Pyrrha nodded as Jaune went towards the entrance and left the restaurant. Once outside, Jaune started to walk in a random direction, hoping to clear his mind.

"Alright I should have figured that Ed's social skills weren't that good, but how can I fix this?" Jaune asked himself as he stopped walking after he walked a block away from the restaurant as he hopelessly tried to think of something. A moment later a figure wearing a red jacket bumped into him.

Akeiro was still seething because of his brother. So blinded by his anger, that he wasn't watching where he was going and ran into the blonde knight.

"Watch it blondie I'm walking here!" Akeiro yelled at Jaune who glared at the alien.

"Hey! You're the one who bumped into me!" Jaune argued, not in the mood to deal with this at the moment.

"Well maybe if you weren't standing in the middle of the sidewalk like a brain dead moron, then maybe I wouldn't have walked into you!" Akeiro growled.

Jaune bristled at being called a brain dead moron. "What is your deal pal?!" Jaune demanded. Akeiro grabbed Jaune by his shirt and pulled him closer to him.

"My 'deal' is idiots like you!" Akeiro roughly shoved Jaune, only for the blonde teen to grab the red hood and accidentally pull it down.

"Hey man, don't be such a...a...?" Jaune sentence was interrupted when Jaune realized that he was currently looking at the head of a robotic alien with a large, blue eye.

"W-What are you?!" Jaune stuttered, taking a step back from the alien robot. Akeiro groaned before cracking his knuckles.

"I'm the guy who's going to have to give you amnesia." Akeiro said, rearing back his fist to his Jaune in the head. Jaune's eyes widened at the escalated situation.

'And I thought that Yang had a bad temper.' Jaune couldn't help but think as the alien robot was about to punch him. Fortunately for Jaune, he was spared the pain of a metallic fist to the face by someone catching their attention. Unfortunately, that someone was less then friendly.

"Well, well, well; if it isn't my favorite red loser." Kasai said from the roof above them. Jaune and Akeiro look up to see the robotic man staring down at them with his large white eye.

"Oh great, another one." Jaune whispered to himself. "Who are you anyway?"

"Kasai." Akeiro answered with no small amount of hatred. If anything, the hatred in Akeiro's tone filled Kasai with glee.

"It's been a while mate, I've been waiting to beat the ever living hell out of you." Kasai stated, pounding his fist into his open hand for emphasis.

Akeiro hummed in amusement. "If I recall, last time we fought I tore out your head straight from your body." Akeiro said with fondness at the memory of ripping the head off his foe.

The white eyed robot started to make choking noises as his body shook in rage. "Screw you red boy!" Kasai yelled. "This time I'm going to cut your damn face in half!"

Jaune, who was following the aggressive conversation closely, decided that now was the time for him to leave. "Listen, since you two seem to be busy, I'm just going to go and let you two settle your differences." Jaune said as he slowly backed away.

"Hold it Blondie." Kasai said, making Jaune freeze in place. "After I'm done killing my...pal here, your next." Jaune could only stare at him in confusion and shock.

"What!? Why?!" Jaune cried out, finding it unfair that he was apparently going to get sucked into this when he had a date to save.

"Because pretty boy, I don't like your ugly mug!" Kasai answered mockingly.

Jaune just stared at him for a moment. "Wait...if I have a ugly mug...then how can I be a pretty boy?" Jaune asked Kasai. The evil robot was silent, a look of realization at his mistake flashed in his eye. Akeiro, who noticed the look, started to laugh loudly.

"Oh god! He got ya there you mental case!" Akeiro stated before he continued laughing.

"SHUT UP!" Kasai yelled in rage. Akeiro continued to laugh for several moments before he was able to stop himself.

"Ah...I needed that." Akeiro said as he swiped away a nonexistent tear. Then his expression turned serious as he points at Kasai. "Seriously though, this time I'm going to crush your head after I tear it off." Akeiro declared. Kasai did an equivalent of a eye smirk at the declaration.

"We'll see." Kasai jumped down from the roof and landed in front of the duo, causing a crater to form under his feet.

"Whoa!" Jaune exclaimed as he and Akeiro leaped away from the deranged robot. Akeiro pulls out a small grey rod form his pocket that extended until it was three feet long with what looked like tasers attached to both ends.

Jaune looked at the rod and felt underwhelmed. "I seriously think that you're going to need something a bit more bigger to handle this guy." Jaune told him. Instead of retorting with a rude comment or insult, Akeiro hmphed in amusement.

"Watch and learn idiot." Akeiro held the rod up and the rod started to extent again, becoming six feet be the time it stopped. The red jacket wearing alien expertly spun the rod around in his hands before striking the ground, making the taser that touched the ground to spark with a massive surge of electricity.

Jaune's eyes sparkled in awe. "That...is...so...COOL!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Pfft, like I'm going be afraid of your little stick." Kasai said mockingly as he walks over to a nearby car and punches through it then proceeds to pick it up without feeling any strain, much to Jaune's shock.

"Let me give you a lift mate." Kasai said before he chucks the car at the duo. Jaune immediately leapt out of the way of the car's current flight pattern. Akeiro rolled his eye and calmly holds up his hand.

Jaune's eyes widened as he was about to yell for the robot to get out of the way, only to be shocked into silence when the car slammed into Akeiro's hand and bended around his hand. Akeiro, however, had a bored look in his eye.

"Seriously? Throwing cars? Is that the best you've got?" Akeiro asked with his eye half lidded.

"Sorry, had to make sure that you weren't rusty." Kasai admitted with a shrug.

"Well, since you know that I'm not a rusty bucket of bolts like you are, let's dance!" Akeiro declared, charging towards Kasai, who in turn charged towards Akeiro. They reared their fists back and slammed them against each other, creating a shockwave so powerful that it shattered windows and blew dozens of cars, as well as Jaune away.

"THIS IS INSANE!" Jaune screamed as he was sent flying across the block. The two robotic entities ignored the chaos that surrounded them as they continued to combat each other. Kasai gave Akeiro a uppercut to the chin and sent him spirally upwards before landing painfully on the ground. Akeiro groaned in pain before he got up, feeling rage building up inside him.

"You just pissed me off pal!" Akeiro growled as he picked himself up, getting ready for round 2 while Jaune back towards where the action was. He managed to get close enough to see Akeiro getting punched upwards and land.

"Well if I'm ready to dive into this insane battle, then it might as well get in now." Jaune told himself as he drew his sword and shield and leapt into the fray, getting in between Kasai and Akeiro.

Kasai noticed his weapon choice and laughed. "Seriously?! You're going to fight me with that dingy looking sword and shield? You must be desperate to use those weapons." Kasai mocked.

"While I hate to agree with that prick, you'll get strangled if you used them in this fight. So do yourself a favor and duck out of this one." The red jacket wearing robot told Jaune.

"No, I'm not going to chicken out of this fight!" Jaune said seriously. "I may not know you, but deep down I know that you're a good person! And there is no way I'm letting you fight this alone!"

Akeiro blinked at Jaune's statement. "...Five minutes ago I was about to punch you face in the face, and what your basically saying is that you trust me enough to help me?" For some reason, Akeiro couldn't help but feel a slight bit touched. Though he would never admit that to anyone, especially Sydney and Carzon.

Jaune nodded, giving Akeiro a genuine smile. "Yeah, plus you remind me of one of my more...hot tempered friends."

"HEY! ARE YOU JUST GOING TO STAND THERE AND TALK OR ARE YOU TWO NUMBSKULLS GOING TO FIGHT?!" Kasai yelled, angry for being ignored.

Jaune and Akiero gave each other a look and nodded, turning and getting into their battle stances.

"Alright then, let's get this party started!" Akeiro stated before they charged at their enemy. Jaune made it to Kasai first and swings at him with his sword, only for the white eyed robot to effortlessly catch it in his outstretched hand. Using Jaune's distraction to his advantage, Kasai grabbed Jaune by the scruff of his shirt and reared his head back, planning to slice through the blonde's head with his sickle like Mohawk. He was stopped when Akeiro's fist made contact with the side of his head, disorientating Kasai and making his grip on Jaune loosen. Jaune took this opportunity to pry himself from the metal hand and stab Kasai's shoulder.

Kasai screamed in pain as he clenched his wounded shoulder, which was gushing out oil. "AHHHHHH WHY YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF FLESH! I SWEAR I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Kasai yelled with rage. The mechanical villain quickly grabbed the duo by their necks and help them up as a dark aura engulfed his hands.

"What's...happening?!" Jaune managed to say while being strangled, feeling like his energy was slowly being drained.

"It's his...void power." Akeiro answered. "I don't know what it does...but if we don't get away from him then we're doing...to die."

"That's right!" Kasai said with murderous glee. "I'm going to keep draining ya until your both nothing more than dried up husks!" After telling them what he was planning on doing to them, the dark aura around his hands intensified as he laughed maniacally.

Akeiro mentally cursed as he held out his hand for his staff that he dropped when Kasai grabbed them. 'Need...to get...staff!' Akeiro weakly thought as he desperately tried to reach for his weapon.


	8. Chapter 8

**Here is part 2 of Chapter 7. Enjoy ^^**

Carzon was running away from his pursuers like a cat running away from a rapid dog.

"How do I keep on getting myself into these situation?!" Carzon cried out as he tried to escape.

"GET BACK HERE AND FACE DEATH LIKE A MAN YOU OVERSIZED TOASTER!" Melanie yelled after the robotic alien, wanting nothing more than to impale his giant eye with her bladed heel. Her yelling caused Carzon to run faster.

Carzon turned and ran into a rundown alleyway, hoping to lose the Malachite twins in the alley. His hopes were dashed when he ended up hitting a fence. To make matters worse, The twins have caught up with him and his only escape route was cut off. The cat has been cornered.

"Oh dear." Carzon whispered in fear as he backed up until his back was touching the fence.

"It's over Shinshi, come quietly and we won't have to scratch your eye out." Militia threatened, holding up her claws to illustrate her point.

"But...I'm not Shinshi!" Carzon cried out. The twins paused for a moment.

"What?" Melanie asked the cat-like robot.

"My name is Carzon." The red-eyed robot introduced himself to them. "I am an alien known as a Xylite, a species of robotic aliens that is made up of living organic metal." Carzon didn't know why, but he felt that they could be trusted with knowing about what he was.

The twins took a few moments to digest the information that Carzon told them.

"If your name is Carzon...that means that-"

"We were chasing the wrong damn robot!" Melanie interrupted her sister's sentence.

"Xylite." Carzon corrected her.

"Can it tin can!" Melanie yelled, not in the mood to be corrected.

Carzon shrank at her tone. "S-sorry." The meek Xylite apologized, taking his hood and pulling it over his head to hide his face.

Militia frown, feeling sympathetic towards the alien robot that they were chasing not three minutes before. "Come on sister; don't be so harsh on him." Militia tried to tell her sister, who snapped her head to glare at her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Melanie apologized sarcastically. "I was too busy thinking about what we're going to tell Roman once he finds out we were chasing the wrong damn robot to spare his feelings!"

Before Militia could retort angrily for her sister's attitude, someone decided to make their presence known.

"I believe that the person you're looking for is right behind you." Shinshi said from two feet behind the twins. The trio turned in surprise to see that Shinshi had somehow got this close to them without alerting them. Melanie and Militia leapt back to get some distance from the cane wielding robot.

"Well it's about time we found the correct Bolt head!" Melanie stated with a nasty smile. Shinshi narrowed his eye in displeasure.

"Bolt head? Shinshi replied sounding offended at the nickname. "At least I dress more properly then you do. Seriously, you look like a working girl from the 30's."

The world went completely silent, the Melanie's bangs hiding her expression. "What...did you...just call me?" The tone of the white dress wearing girl was so cold and icy that it could have frozen time itself.

"Oh I do apologize young lady; you must have not heard me clearly." Shinshi apologized. "Let me repeat it to you a little louder. You are a working-" Before he could finish his insult, Melanie charged at him with a battle cry at high speeds. Shinshi chuckled in his throat in amusement as Melanie leapt above him and aimed her bladed heel at his head with fire in her eyes, using gravity to give her momentum.

When the blade was an inch away from his eye, Shinshi swerved to the side fluidly and allowed her leg to pass by him harmlessly. Melanie's eyes widens at how easily he dodged her strike. 'What? How can he dodge so quickly from that short distance?!' Melanie thought as she landed right beside the robotic villain. Like a snake striking its prey, Shinshi precisely struck a pressure point in her neck with two of his three finger, causing Melanie to black out from the blow.

Militia watched in horror as her sister's limp body fell to the ground. "MELANIE!" Militia cried out, preying to any deity out there that her sister wasn't dead.

"Don't fret madam, your sister isn't dead. She's merely in the sweet embrace of unconsciousness." The sharply dressed robot assured her, causing the Malachite twin to sigh in relieve. "But now that the barking gnat is no longer going to annoy us with her constant barking, why don't you tell me why you two were looking for my brother and I?"

Militia chuckled darkly. "I regret to inform you that we were looking for you two, but not anymore." Militia told him coldly.

"Oh? And what are you going to do now then since you looking for us is no longer an issue?" Shinshi inquired.

"Simple...I'm going to rip you to shreds for hurting my sister!" Militia said in rage, her teeth bared and her red claws hungry for the blood of the robot in front of her. However, her anger was cut short when she felt the skeletal hand of Carzon on her shoulder. She cranes her next to look at the serious looking Carzon gazing into her eyes.

"Let me handle this." Carzon told her.

"Hell no! This prick just injured my sister!" The red wearing woman argued. "I'm not going to stand back and let this mook get away with that!"

Carzon flashed a sympathetic look at her and shook his head. "No, he already had time to analyze how you move. If you go at him then you won't win and he won't hesitate to kill you." The red eyed alien explained.

Militia just stared at his large eye, not being able to detect even a hint of fear. 'This is insane, literally a few minutes ago he was the biggest coward I ever saw. But now...it's like I'm staring at someone else entirety.'

Carzon gently squeezed her shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Please...just step aside." Carzon begged. She didn't know why, but she felt her body moving on it's own and moved out of the way. Once she was out of harm's reach, Carzon took a few steps towards Shinshi, who eyed him with amusement.

"It's been awhile hasn't it?" Carzon asked Shinshi.

"Carzon...I have been eagerly waiting for this moment for a long time." Shinshi stated, twirling his cane before stopping and tapping the ground. "I have to saw, your quite the difficult fellow to fine with that ridiculous jacket you're wearing."

"I'm giving you one chance to walk out of here." Carzon told him, completely ignoring the jab at his attire.

"A body of cold metal...but a heart of a bleeding heart organic." Shinshi said with no small amount of disgust. "How pitiful."

"Why do you hate organics so much? What have they done to you to earn your spite?!" Carzon questioned the his opponent.

Shinshi chuckled at the question. "Opposites my friend, opposites." Carzon gave him a funny look, making Shinshi roll his eye. "Let me explain in more detail then. I was created to be your exact opposite in every way imaginable. Anything you love I will hate, from those flea bitten animals to those despicable organics." Shinshi gripped his cane harder. "The reason for my existence is to be your destroyer, the same way that my brother will be your brother's destroyer. In fact, my brother should be finishing off your brother as we speak."

The dot that was Carzon's pupil shrank to a pinpoint. "Oh no...Akeiro!"

"Ah, I see that you're concern for you brother still persists even after the way that he treats you." Shinshi observed. Carzon shakes his head.

"No matter what he does or says, he's still my brother! We swore an oath that we would have each other's backs no matter what!" Carzon told the evil copy. Shinshi stared at Carzon intently before closing his eye and sighing.

"You know...out of everything I hate about this planet and everything in it, I believe that the one thing that I absolutely LOATHE most of all is you and that stubborn spirit of yours." Shinshi said before chuckling darkly. "Which is way I'm going to get so much pleasure after I shatter it into pieces." Shinshi raised his cane and aimed it at Carzon's tail. "But not before I shoot your tail off."

Carzon, who was caught off guard by his last statement, barely managed to dodge the bullet that fired out of hole at the bottom of the cane, getting hit on the tip of his tail instead.

"YEOW!" Carzon yelped in pain as he clutched his wounded tail.

Shinshi decided to seice this opportunity and charges towards Carzon, twisting off the head of the cane and flipped a switch. From the open end of the cane head, a pure white plasma blade ignited wand extended out to four feet in length. Shinshi raises the energy blade up, ready to bisect the Alien from his head to his feet.

Luckily Carzon noticed the blade in time and catch it with his three fingered hand before it could cut through his head. The metal duo struggled to overpower the other.

"It's useless Shinshi. The skin of my people is made of a metal stronger then what your blade can cut." Carzon told him.

"I'm well aware of that, pitiful organic lover." Shinshi said condescendingly. "I was merely stalling for time."

"Stalling? For what?" Carzon inquired before he felt a jolt surging through his body as his form started to morph back to his original shape, His claws and tail receded back into his body.

"Uh oh!" Carzon exclaimed in shock while Militia looked confused.

"What's going on? Why did you change back?" The conscious Malachite twin asked in bemusement.

"I think I'll answer that question for my red eyed friend." Shinshi offered. "You see, the animal forms that he likes to fight in are only temporary and he can't maintain them for long. And unfortunately for him, his fighting skills are almost completely nonexistent in his base form, meaning that I can do THIS!" Shinshi kneed Carzon in the stomach, making the alien bend over in pain. The organic hating machine then kicked him away from him and sent him flying past Militia and into the fence.

The girl in the red dress rushed over to the downed alien's side and crouched down to inspect him for injuries. "Are you alright?" Militia asked him, feeling genuine concern for the gentle metal man.

"I...can't feel my anything." Carzon answered in a pained slur.

"I'm sure you'll do fine." Militia assured him. "Believe it or not, my sister and I went through something like this before." Militia's scowled and mumbled angrily about a "Blonde Tramp."

"Oh, sorry to hear that." Carzon told her before he noticed the feather in her hair. "Say...is that feather real?"

Militia was caught off guard by his question." Um I think so, why?" Militia asked with an unsure tone.

Carzon sat up and looked at her intently. "I have a plan that might work. But first, may I hold that feather for a moment?"

"Sure, I guess." Militia reached upwards and plucked the feather out of her hair and held it out for Carzon, who gently took it from her.

After a moment of nothing happening until his body started to morph. Unlike with his cat form, his legs became thinner as the front of his feet split into two thin bird talons with sharp claws on the end. A third talon sprouted out on the back of his feet, creating two Y-shaped feet. The next body parts to transform were Carzon's arms, with extended a foot and grew airplane-like wings with a fan turbine in the middle of each wing. His face grew long and beak-like and his eye split into two eyes with his signature red eye color.

Militia stared at the new, avian form of Carzon with awe. "Oh my Oum! Now I really have seen everything." Militia said with wide eyes.

Carzon wasted no time in taking flight and dive bombing at Shinshi, who chuckled in amusement.

"You always had a thing for birds, didn't y-" Shinshi was cut off when Carzon's talons grabbing his shoulders and the Xyrite flew upwards with his opposite in tow. After he was high enough Carson released Shinshi, sending him plummeting towards the ground. His body collides to the ground and bounces.

'I'm...seriously going to get him for that one.' Shinshi thought in irritation, not knowing that Carzon was currently dive bombing towards him again with his left foot aimed at his back until said foot impacted him. The force behind the attack pushed Shinshi into the ground and creating a crater with bits and pieces of concrete sent flying in all directions. As all of this was happening, Militia was cheering Carzon on.

"And so the gentleman crumbles." Carzon said before he leapt off Shinshi and walks over to Militia, who was jumping in excitement.

"That was amazing!" Militia exclaimed, making Carzon blush from the praise.

"Yeah, I'm just glad it's over." Carzon said with a happy sigh. As if the universe heard him and wanted to toy with him, Shinshi rises from the crater with his blade in hand, slowly approaching him from behind with murder in his eye.

"Goodbye organic loving traitor." The rage filled gentleman growled, raising his blade up in the air to finish off Carzon, only for a flash of red to go through his neck. Shinshi paused in stunned silence and dropped his plasma blade, his eye widen in shock as his head slid backwards from his body and rolled away while his neck to slid forwards.

Carson turns around to see that Militia had decapitated Shinshi as oil dripped off her right claw. The body of Carzon's opposite dropped to his knees and dropped sideways. This time, he wouldn't get back up.

Carzon looked up from the body and gave Militia a unnerved look. "Thank you but...you didn't need to do that." Carzon told her.

"Hey, he knocked out my sister and he was about to cut your head off." Militia said with a shrug. "He deserved to be put down."

"That's not my point!" Carzon argued. "He may have been evil but we shouldn't just go head and attack someone ruthlessly like that, no matter how much they deserve it."

Without any expression on her face, Militia walked up to the robot bird alien until she was inches from his face, making Carzon look uncomfortable. After a few moments, she smiled.

"You know...you're too much of a nice guy." Militia admitted. "Also...I know we just met and we didn't give off a good first impression, but...you're kind of cute in a not so human kind of way."

Carzon, not understanding where the unexpected compliment came from, reacted in the way that anyone in his situation would.

"What?" Carzon asked cluelessly.

Militia rolled her eyes good naturedly and smiled. "You heard me; I think that you're cute." Militia repeated, pointing at him. Carzon still didn't understand.

"Forgive me, but I haven't been around females long enough to understand how they think and act." Carzon admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

The Malachite twin found herself confused by his comment. "What do you mean?"

"I meant that other then my good friend Sydney, you're the only other female that I've actually had the opportunity to talk to other then your sister, though that didn't end so well." Carzon explained.

"That's a shame; you're such a nice and polite person. Any girl would be lucky to be with a guy like you." Militia said with a sad looked before her expression changed into a thoughtful one. 'Maybe...he could be the one.' Militia thought as the wheels in her head started to turn.

Meanwhile, Carson was getting worried because Militia hasn't said anything for several minutes. But before he could say anything to get her attention, a face splitting grin found its way on Militia's face.

"I've decided!" Militia exclaimed suddenly, spooking Carzon.

"R-really? Decided on what?" Carzon nervously asked.

Militia pointed at Carzon dramatically, a pleased and determined look on her face.

"I've decided...that you're going to be my boyfriend!" Militia declared proudly. The alleyway was silent for several moments after her declaration.

"Oh...alright then, sounds nice." Carzon finally replied nonchalantly. "But I really need to find my brother before he gets hurt or worse."

Militia looked very happy that Carzon was fine with it, not knowing that he doesn't truly understand the implications of being someone's boyfriend.

"Well...I'm off." Carson stretched out his wings and flapped, lifting him up. The fans in his wings kicked on and ascends higher until he was above the buildings, allowing him to glide away and look for Akeiro. Militia smiled and waved goodbye as her new boyfriend flew away.

'I wonder if he can become a dog person.' Militia thought, giggling at the thought of him having dog ears and tail. 'He would look so adorable.'

It was at this point that Melanie finally started to wake up, groaning and cussing as she sat up and massaged her neck where Shinshi struck her.

"What the hell happened?" Melanie asked. Militia turned and cried out in joy as she ran over to her sister.

"MELANIE! YOU'RE ALL RIGHT!" Militia sobbed out as she hugged her sister to her, almost poking Melanie with her claw.

"Hey! Watch where you stick those things!" Melanie warned her red dressed sister. Militia apologized and took them off.

"Alright then, what happened to the alien and Shinshi?" Melanie interrogated her sister.

"Well...Carzon and Sir Douche bag duked it out and Carson ended up transforming into a bird and slamming that prick to the ground. Then he tried to attack Carzon from behind but I sliced his head clean off!" Militia summarized before pointed behind her. "Just look for yourself."

Melanie looked over her sister's shoulder to see that, just like Militia said, Shinshi's body was laying on the ground with his head a few feet away.

'Roman is not going to be pleased.' Melanie thought before noticing the excited look on her twin's face.

"And that's not the best part!" Militia said excitedly. "I have a boyfriend now!"

The white clad employee of Junior's mind came to a screeching halt as she tried to process what she just heard. "What?! Who?!" Melanie demanded.

"The metal alien that we were chasing, Carzon." Militia answered before she got a dreamy expression on her face. "He's cute, polite, has a good heart, and has such a gorgeous red eye." Militia sighed happily. "And he agreed to by my boyfriend."

Melanie just stared at her, her expressions shifting from a deadpan expression, to dumbstruck, to a expression that looked like she was about to erupt before settling on a tired look.

"You know what? We can talk about this later." Melanie sighed, too tired to care at the moment. "But right now we have to think of what to tell Roman when we get back, because I really doubt that he'll be all that pleased to find out that you deep six'd our target."

Militia though for a moment before she had an idea. She got up and walked over to Shinshi's corpse and picked up his head and returning to her sister's side.

"Maybe if we bring his head back to Roman, he could find away to extract the information he wanted." Militia stated.

Melanie sighed again. "I hope your right or else we might share his fate." Melanie said grimly before getting up to her feet. "Maybe we'll have better luck finding the other guy."

Militia nodded and they both left the alleyway, hoping to find the brother of Shinshi so they can bring him back to Roman for interrogation.

Back with Jaune and Akeiro, the two heroes were starting to feel weak as more and more of their energy was being drained by the dastardly Kasai, who was cackling maniacally. "You two wankers are the definition of pathetic!" Kasai stated. "It's actually difficult to say which one of you is more pathetic, the blonde nimrod or the Crimson champion has-been. It's a real tough call, but it won't really matter in a few moments anyway." The duo felt their energy being drained faster as Kasai continued to laugh.

Jaune cranes his neck to look at Akeiro, who does the same. "Hey, in case we don't make it out of this alive, I just want you to know that I'm sorry for bumping into you." Jaune apologized, deciding to bury the hatchet while he still can.

Akiero chuckled weakly. "It ain't your fault kid; I wasn't exactly being all that friendly either." Akeiro said. "Besides we're going to get out of this, believe me."

Jaune gave him a conflicted look. "How can you be so sure?" Jaune asked, not seeing a way out of this and both of them too weakened to even break Kasai's grip. Akeiro looks up in the sky and sees a familiar figure in the sky. Said figure had what looked like a blue hoodie.

"Call it...a hunch." The red hoodie wearing Xylite said, mentally smirking because he lacked a mouth to physically grin. It looked like Kasai was getting tired of their chatter.

"Enough talk you bozos, time to d-" Kasai was interrupted when Carzon dropped from the sky and grabbed Kasai by the shoulders with his talons and lifted into the sky. Surprised by the sudden elevation, the opposite of Akeiro lost his grip of Jaune and Akeiro, allowing them to drop to the ground safely.

"About time you got here." Akeiro called towards Carzon, feeling glad that his brother came for them.

"Sorry!" Carzon yelled back, rising higher as Kasai struggled to get loose. "I got sidetracked by Shinshi and these two strange human females!" As Carzon ascended higher, Jaune sent a confused look towards Akeiro.

"Who is that exactly?" Jaune questioned the Xylite.

"Him? He's my brother and the more pathetic, uncool version of me." Akeiro explained.

Carzon, who was close enough to hear his remark about him, glared down at him.

"You do know I can still hear you from this height right?" Carzon whined.

Kasai started to cuss as his struggle to get free intensified. "LET ME DOWN YOU BLUE PIDGEON!" Kasai snarled loudly.

The blue avian Xylite looked down and stared at his captured adversary, contemplating about whether or not to comply to his demands. "Alright, if you say so." Carzon said, unclenching his talons and let Kasai dropped. It was too late for Kasai to realize his horrible mistake. While he was too busy struggling and demanding freedom, that he didn't realize that they were over 50 feet off the ground.

"DAMN IT A-" Kasai yelled before he landed on a lone car that managed to stay in the area during his and Akeiro's fight, crushing it like a soda can.

Carzon quickly landed on the ground next to his brother and Jaune, all three of them watching as Kasai slowly risen from the wreckage.

"Hate you...hate you all." Kasai coughed as he shook away the cobwebs in his head. Akeiro used this time to go over and pick up his staff before turning to Jaune.

"Alright Jaune, since you're new and everything, I'm going to show you a neat trick I can do." Akeiro told him.

"And that is?" Jaune inquired. Akeiro closed his eye and held up a finger.

"It's simple really, the more I get damaged and enraged, the stronger I get, and if a get strong enough I can enter a stage that I like to call-" Akeiro opens eye, which was glowing a bright red-orange color and his fists were engulfed in flames. "FULL RED!" Akeiro yelled, entering his stronger form.

Jaune just stares at the red jacket wearing alien's eyes and burning fists. 'Holy Oum! He's a copy of Yang!' Jaune thought. 'Except for the puns...thank Oum for small blessings.'

With great speed, Akeiro charges at his copy, slamming into him and grabbing his head before he could dodge. Akeiro began his brutal assault by slamming Kasai's face into his knee, cracking his eye. He then preceded by grabbing the blades that made up his Mohawk and ripping them right off his head. Before Kasai could cry out in pain, Akeiro effortlessly tosses him away a few feet away and grabs his taser staff.

As Kasai tried to get up Akeiro leapt high in the air and fell towards the struggling criminal with the taser pointing towards his chest, the flames engulfing his hands being channeled through the staff and mixing with the electricity.

"What in the world is going on?!" Jaune exclaimed. Never before had the blonde knight seen two elements mixing like this.

"Oh that? Akeiro and the staff share a special connection with each other, meaning that it also gets a power boost when he does, creating the ultimate combination between fire and electricity." Carzon explained.

Jaune gave him a deadpan look. "You're joking...right?" Jaune asked the blue wearing brother of Akeiro, not believing what Carzon told him was believable. Carzon tilted his head and looked at the Beacon student with confusion.

"What's a joke?" Carzon innocently asked.

Jaune sweat dropped. 'Is this guy for real?' "Never mind, forget I said anything." Jaune told him, deciding that now wasn't the best time to have this discussion when an brutal battle was happening in front of them.

Speaking of which, with a mighty thrust, Akeiro impaled Kasai through the chest and lodged the flame enhanced taser in his chest cavity, causing the evil copy to scream in pain as his insides were electrified and burned. After a few moments of painful wails, Akeiro stomped his foot on Kasai's chest and pull his staff, dislodging it. Kasai could only stare into the cold eye of the Xylite that he was based off of as Akeiro leveled his staff end towards Kasai's eye.

"Burn in hell." Akeiro said in a low, angry tone as he slams the taser into Kasai's eye and through his core processor. Kasai's body spasmed for a few moments before he body went still.

Jaune's eyes were wide in horror as he witnessed the sheer brutality of the one sided fight.

"He's...this is insane!" Jaune cried out in disbelief. Carzon shook his head.

"I know how you feel; he tends to go overboard when he's in this state." The gentler of the two brothers told the blonde before he notices that Akeiro was turning to look at them, looking extremely pissed.

"Is he alright?" Jaune asked, not noticing that Carzon took a step back with a fear stricken face.

"Uh...we should get out of here." Carzon replied nervously.

"...Why?" Jaune reluctantly asked, knowing that he won't like the answer.

"Because not only does he go over boards when he's like this, he also goes berserk and attacks anything around him, whether or not that person is a friend or enemy." Carzon explained, shaking like crazy. "And he just found his next targets." Carzon said in a whisper.

To make matters worse, Carzon's transformation ran out and he reverted back to his original form. "...And it looks like flying away is no longer an option."

Jaune laughs nervously. "Come on, it can't be that bad...can it?" Jaune asked, not feeling sure after seeing how Carzon was acting. As if karma decided to punish Jaune cruelly for his question, Akeiro charged at them with a blood curling battle cry filled with blood-lust. Carzon and Jaune did the only thing they could have done in their situation, hug each other tightly and scream in high pitches.

Luckily for them, the intensity of the flames on the enraged Alien's hands started to die down and he started to slow down. By the time he reached them, he was breathing hard and stumbling towards them like a drunk. He finally stopped a foot away from them and collapsed to the ground, completely exhausted.

"Wonderful, he's all tuckered out." Carzon said in relief, walking towards his unconscious brother and lifted him onto his shoulder. Jaune dropped to his knees and cried in joy.

"Oh thank Oum, thank you so much." Jaune cried in joy.

"Who's Oum?" Carzon asked after making sure that his red jacket wearing brother was secured. This broke Jaune out of his daze and he got to his feet.

"It's nothing; let's get your brother to somewhere safe." Jaune told him before going to Akeiro's other side and draping the unconscious alien's arm over his shoulder and helped Carzon lift Akeiro away. Jaune already had a place in mind.

Back at General Burgers, Ed's and Sydney's date had hit a roadblock and they sat at their table in complete, awkward silence. Pyrrha, who was waiting patiently for Jaune to return, was starting to get anxious and annoyed.

"What is taking him so long?!" Pyrrha huffed before standing up and going towards the door. If Jaune wasn't going to come to her, then she might as well go to him. Her hurry to find Jaune was interrupted when she went outside to see a street that looked like a tornado came through. Cars were flipped and were heavily dented, building windows were shattered into millions of pieces, and from the corner of her eye Pyrrha spotted a car that looked no worse than wear...on top of a roof. At this moment Pyrrha had two perfect questions on her mind.

"What happened here and how did we not notice this earlier?!" Pyrrha exclaimed. Luckily, from her left, she spotted a certain blonde that could answer her burning questions and what looked like two people wearing a blue and a red jacket, the one wearing the red jacket being dragged around by Jaune and the blue jacket wearing guy.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out as she rushed over. "Where were you? What happened out here? Who are these two? Why are you three so banged up?"

Jaune laughed nervously as he recounted the events that transpired "Well...after I left the restaurant, I ended up pumping into this guy here-" Jaune tilted his head at Akeiro, who is still unconscious. "-and long story short, I ended up getting dragged into a fight between an evil robot with a strange accent and a robot alien that has the same abilities as Yang." Jaune summarized.

Pyrrha stared at Jaune unblinkingly as her eyebrows furrowed before nodding. "Alright, that answers three of the questions, but that still leaves the question on whom or what these two are." Pyrrha eyes the two bizarre looking robots that were accompanying her leader. Jaune opened his mouth to answer, only to be stopped by Carzon.

"Please let me answer this." Carzon politely asked, getting a nod from Jaune. "My name is Carzon and this is my brother Akeiro, and we're a race of alien robots called Xylites." Carson answered, surprising both Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Wait! You two are actually aliens? I fought alongside real, genuine, honest to Oum Aliens!?" Jaune exclaimed excitedly, feeling giddy like a child.

"Um...yeah, something like that." Carzon answered before the doors to the burger joint slammed opened and Ed ran out, followed by Sydney. Ed looked around at the damaged windows and ruined cars.

"Okay, can any of you explain what the hell happened out-?!" Ed started to demand before he noticed the two non-human life forms that was standing next to Jaune and Pyrrha. "What on earth are you two?!" Sydney stopped right to the disguised vigilante.

"What happened out here?! It looks like a twister hit the pla-" Sydney stopped mid-sentence when she spotted the unconscious Akeiro and Carzon; the latter froze when he saw her. "Akeiro? Carzon? I thought I told you two to stay at the coffee shop and to stay out of trouble." Sydney scolded, placing her hands on her hips.

"Well you see Sydney, I tried to stay at the shop, but Akeiro wouldn't listen...again." Carzon explained. "And you know how nervous I can get when I'm alone so...I kind of went with him."

Sydney raised her hand to her face and messaged her temple. "I leave you two alone for a few hours and somehow everything in sight gets totaled." Sydney said in an upset tone.

"Hold on, you know these two?" Ed inquired, cutting into the conversation as he looked from the aliens to Sydney.

"Yeah...I do." Sydney answered uneasily. "I met them a few months ago when their ship crash landed near where I lived. I didn't know what else to do so I took them in, so now we're on the run from the government and other people who're after them."

Ed nodded as he took in the new information. 'Great, now my glasses is going to annoy me about being right about aliens.' Ed though with dread when he effectually tell his computerized glasses. Sydney then turns and gives the black haired man a desperate look.

"Please don't turn them in to the government, their very dear to me and good friends." Sydney begged. Closed his and stayed silent in contemplation.

"Ed...you're not considering doing that are you?" Jaune tentatively asked, afraid that Ed will decide that Akeiro and Carzon are too huge a threat to roam free.

"...No, in fact I'm not going to do anything." Ed finally answered. This came as a very pleasant surprise to everyone.

"R-really?" Sydney shyly, hoping that she wasn't hallucinating and Ed was going to take them away.

"Yes." Ed answered, shattering any idea that his answer was a hallucination or a horrible joke. "I really don't trust the government and no one got hurt this time. Plus, you seem like a person who knows what they are doing. So I see no point in involving the government in this." Ed said with a smile before frowning. "But try to keep the red one on a tighter leash for now one."

Sydney felt overwhelming joy fill her entire being, finally someone else that she can trust not to sell her and the twins out. "Th-thank you for this, you have no idea how much this means to me." Sydney told him, a tear of happiness ran down her face.

Ed reached over and gently wiped the tear off her face. "It's not a problem at all; consider this a way to pay you back for not being much of a good date." Ed said sincerely.

"Yeah well...I don't really think I was that good either." Sydney admitted with a blush. "But that doesn't mean that we couldn't try again later."

Ed's heart fluttered as his face became beet red. "Y-yeah." Ed stuttered. Pyrrha coughed into her fist, bringing all the attention to her.

"While I am happy that you two are getting along to well, we should probably head back before it gets too late." Pyrrha pointed out.

"You're right! Violet is probably wondering where I am right now." Ed stated, getting a confused look from Sydney.

"Who's Violet?" Sydney questioned Ed.

"Oh, she's my adopted daughter." Ed answered, getting the young woman excited.

"You have a daughter?! I can't wait to meet her." Sydney told him.

"Yeah, I can't wait to introduce you to her. I bet she'll like you." Ed said. "But right now, I should get back before one of her sitters tries to hug her to death."

"Then let's head there now." Jaune said. "Then I, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren can get back to the Internal Green hotel."

Sydney perked up at the mention of the hotel. "That's funny, that's where we were going to stay at." Sydney said, finding the coincidence humorous.

"That cool, then we can meet you there later." Pyrrha stated.

"Yeah, but maybe Akeiro and I should put our hoodies back on before we go anywhere." Carzon said before pulling his hoodie back up then did the same for his brother who continued to snooze away.

"That's a good call." Ed said, nodding in approval. "We'll be seeing you."

The two groups separated and went their separate ways. Right after they were out of sight, Melanie and Militia appeared from an alleyway a block away from the Four Star General Burger and examined the massive amounts of destruction that the street went through.

"Holy Oum! This whole area looks worse than the time Blondie destroyed our bar." Melanie couldn't help but compare.

"At least it doesn't look like no one got-" Militia stopped herself when she spotted the mangled remains of Kasai. "What the hell happened to him?!" Militia asked in shock.

"It looks like someone got him good." Melanie observed, examining the hole in his chest and head. "Well this is just fan-freakin-tastic! Roman is going to be pissed because all we got to show him is a corpse and a disembodied head!"

"We should just bring the body too, just to be safe." Militia suggested.

"Yeah, maybe Roman won't deep-six us if we have something he can us." Melanie said as she walked over to Kasai's body and lifted him onto her back. The twins took the remains they scrounged out and headed to their base of operations, hoping that what they brought with them will be good enough for the red haired criminal.

Meanwhile, at Ed's house. Ed, Pyrrha, and Jaune finally made it back to the vigilante's house, feeling exhausted from the day.

"Well that could have gone better, but at least Sydney is interested in you." Pyrrha said to Ed, who smiled.

"Yeah, hopefully I don't end up messing it up." Ed said solemnly. "Thanks you two for helping me."

"No problem, we're just happy that we were at least somewhat helpful." Jaune told him. They entered the house and went into the living room, only to see the last thing they expected to see that day. Nora fast asleep on the couch with Violet snuggled next to her with Nora's arms wrapped around her small frame.

"Oh my Oum, that is so adorable!" Pyrrha cooed at the two.

"Wow, didn't see that coming." Jaune said.

At that moment, Ren walked out of the kitchen with an apron on and humming a tune. He froze when he noticed that the three were back.

"Oh, you all back already?" Ren asked in surprised. "So how did the date go?" Despite the question he did ask, the three knew that Ren was really asking, 'How horribly did it go.'

"Some...unexpected ended up happening, but it turned out okay enough. The girl seems interested at the very least." Pyrrha explained.

"I see, not very surprising seeing that Jaune was the one giving the advice." Ren stated, subtly taking a dig at Jaune's dating advice giving skills.

"Hey!" Jaune yelled, taking offence at the insult.

Everyone chuckled at the sour expression on Jaune's face. "Anyway, thank you for looking after Violet for me." Ed thanked Ren. "But I think you should get back before it gets too late out."

Jaune nodded "Sure thing." Jaune said before turning towards Ren. "Can you wake up Nora for us?" Jaune asked the martial artist.

Ren nodded and walked over to Nora, placing his hand on her shoulder and gently shakes her awake. "Whas happenin'?" Nora asked groggily. Ren explains that they needed to go, making Nora frown. "Alright." Nora said hesitantly as she gently untangled herself from Violet, managing mot to wake her up. The four teens left the residence and headed towards the hotel, unaware that trouble was brewing at the Tartarus Club.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Ouk'om's and Xylites part 1: The arrival of Mimicker

Roman could feel every fiber of his being shaking in anger as his eyes bore into the Malachite twins, his cigar laying forgotten in the ashtray. When they first came back after being out for a few hours, he had hoped that they would be followed by the twin creations of Light-Warrior. But instead all they managed to bring back was a disembodied head and a charred metal corpse. The fact that they failed in a simple mission aggravated Roman to no end.

"Would you two care to tell me why the targets that you two were supposed to bring back ALIVE were brought to me dead?" Roman hissed as he tightly gripped his cane, showing the twins that they had better give him a good explanation for this.

It was Militia that came forward.

"Well...we hit a snag in our...peaceful talk and one thing lead to another so...I had to chop Shinshi's head off." Militia nervously explained.

Roman threw her a dirty look. "And what, pray tell, happened that caused you to have to kill him?" Roman demanded.

"He attacked us and knocked out Melanie!" Militia told him, deciding to leave out information regarding Carzon just in case Roman decides to go after him.

The top hat wearing criminal groaned and rubbed his face. "Then knock him out and drag him here! It's not that difficult!" Roman scolded. "I swear, if it weren't for the fact that you two are Junior's stooges, then I would fire you...with real fire."

"Hey, don't blame us! He was the one that attacked us!" Melanie defended herself and Militia. "Besides, at least we didn't kill the other one too."

"That's not the point!" The orange haired man growled, at the end of his patience. "The point is that now our only lead that we had on Light-Warrior is gone!"

Seeing as he was about to blow his top, Militia decided that this would be the best time to tell him her idea before he kills them.

"We could always try hacking into Shinshi's head and figure out what he knows about Light-Warrior." Militia quickly said. "I mean, he is a machine and all."

At that moment Roman Torchwick paused as he considered the red dress wearing Malachite twin, a vicious grin splitting his face as his anger dissipates.

"By Oum's teachings, I do believe your onto something." Roman said as he gave Militia a quick glance. "At least one of you have the brains to pick up the slack."

Melanie sneered, knowing that he was poking fun at her. "Screw you Roman!" Melanie yelled. Before the crime boss could retort with a taunt, there was a knock on the door and Junior poked his head through the slightly opened door.

"What is it Junior? Don't you see that we're in the middle of something at the moment?" Roman said rudely, irritated that he was being interrupted.

"You have a visitor, someone that wants to talk to you about a partnership." Junior said as he opened the door fully and walked into the room.

Roman rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, yet another costumed freak that thinks that their hot stuff but will end up failing miserably anyway." Roman said, starting to get fed up with the villains of this world and how they end up failing him.

Then out of nowhere, a second Hei 'Junior' Xiong walks into the room, looking distracted. "Hey Roman, have you seen my Bazooka anyw-" Junior stops when he realized that there was one more person in the room then there should have been and looks over to see someone that looks exactly like him. The bartender looks at his doppelganger with wide eyes and a slowly opening mouth as he slowly drinks in the appearance of the other man.

"What the hell is going on!?" Junior finally said as he backed away from the clone.

"That is what I want to know." Roman said, sounding subdued because of his confusion.

The first Junior closed and let out a low chuckle. "It looks like it's time to drop the charade." The fake Junior said before his face and hands turned into a yellow, goo like substance and started to move like a wave.

Within moment, four yellow goo tentacles sprung out from where the mouth once was while of its head while the rest of the head became a more spherical and bulbous shape. Green circles appeared and dotted the entire head and limp limbs. On the bulbous head, two, beady eyes opened as glared in amusement at the shocked criminals. The clothing fused together and turned into a silver suit with a almost metallic texture to it. The last part of the transformation was the hands, which turned the same tone of yellow as the creatures head.

The four just stared in a combination of amazement, fear, wariness, and sickness as they continued to watch the being that had a head that resembles a Blue-ringed octopus in front of them.

"What...are you?!" Roman asked the strange being, already deducing that it wasn't something that existence naturally on this world.

"I am Mimicker, Roman Torchwick." The now named Mimicker answered Roman, his tentacles moving as he talked.

Junior could only stare in horror at Mimicker, feeling sick to his stomach to watch his handsome face (in his opinion) turn into something so ugly in such a sickening manner, swallowing some bile that threatened to go up his throat and out his mouth.

"Oh Oum." Militia said, holding her hand over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up.

"I think I'm going to be sick!" Melanie stated as she quickly went over to a trashcan and promptly threw up everything that was in her stomach.

"I know that my transformation isn't the most pleasing to your species, but that is the way of the Ouk'om." The Alien Octopus explained.

"Alright Ouk'om...thing, would you enlighten us on why you're here?" Roman asked carefully.

"It's simple Roman Torchwick, I'm here to help you with your 'pest' problem." Mimicker explained, alluding to the team that has been inconveniencing him at every turn. The orange haired criminal nodded before gave the octopus like alien a hard look.

"You see that's the thing, the few people that we recruited in hopes of making things go smoothly end up botching up their jobs and failing miserably." Roman told him, feeling residue anger at all the times he's been let down. "So why should I even bother trusting you? What can you bring to our little group?"

The yellow alien raised its eye before it's body turned into yellow goo again and started to morph again. The Malachite twins and Junior decided to look that other way so they don't get grossed out again. The tentacles sank into the head as the head shrank and a outline of a human face formed. Seconds went by as the outlines became more prevalent until Roman was looking at a yellow version of his own face. Mimicker's silvery clothing morphed until it looked like the clothes Roman wore except silver. Finally, both Mimicker's body and clothes changed colors until every single thread of clothing, strand of hair, and skin cell was the same colors as the real Roman.

"What can I bring to your group?" The Mimic asked in Roman's voice. "I can do this."

The alien life-form watched as the gears inside Roman's head began to spin and a sinister smirk appeared on his face.

"I think that I can find a use for you." Roman stated. "But there's more to it is there?" There was no shortage of suspension in his voice that the galactic octopus easily picked up on.

"What are you getting at?" The disguised alien asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I think I can say without any doubt that you're an alien right?" Mimicker nodded at Roman's question. "So why would one with such a interesting power come here of all places and say that they want to help us of all people?" Roman said before he gave Mimicker a knowing smirk. "Unless you had another reason for joining us that you're not telling us."

Mimicker was silent for a moment, staring right into Roman's eyes with a blank look on his face. Then he smirked and slowly chuckled until he was outright laughing.

"You are good Roman Torchwick, you've caught me red handed." The Ouk'om admitted. "You were right to point out that I had a different reason to join your group. It just so happens that two of my current targets are somewhere in this human settlement which you call a city."

"And you want to catch them, am I right? Junior finally shook over his disgust and asked. "What does that have to do with us?" Mimicker smirk widened.

"More then you know Hei Xiong." Mimicker called Junior by his given name. "It just so happens that my targets are accompanying the targets you want dead."

Roman's eyes flashed in interest. "Oh I see, so that's why you want to work with us. You help us kill the kids and-"

"You help me capture the two Xylite's." Mimicker finished. Militia's heart stopped and her body stiffens when he mentioned the species he was after, knowing that one of his targets was most likely Carzon.

"And what are the names of your quarry?" Roman asked, completely ignorant of Militia's change of posture.

"Their names are Akiero and Carzon, part of an endangered species known as the Xylites." Mimicker explained, reaffirming Militia's fear.

"I see, and why are they so special?" Roman inquired.

"The answer of that is in their metallic skin. Something within the Xylite's DNA allows them to shape shift into anything when certain external and internal requirements are met. And when I say anything, I mean anything; from weapons that can change from one type to another to a space craft that can change shape and repair itself."

Roman nodded in amazement. "I bet they would make perfect warriors to add to our side." Roman said before Mimicker frown and shook his head.

"Unfortunately, the two that I mentioned before are the only ones left after most of them were killed off by their Wolf-like enemies, the Wybred." Mimicker smiled greedily. "But that makes them both more valuable to any self respected poacher like me who want to make good money."

"THEY'RE NOT ANIMALS YOU SICKO!" Militia burst without thinking.

"Militia! What are you doing?!" Melanie hissed between grated teeth, only to be ignored by her sister.

"If they're endangered, then they should be left alone!" Militia argued with the shape-shifting alien poacher.

Mimicker stared her straight in her eyes without blinking. "Perhaps for small minded individuals like you and the Galactic Department of Endangered Life-forms, but people such as myself know that the universe runs on money, so we hunt done endangered species and sell them dead or alive for the highest bidder." Mimicker chuckled darkly. "I bet that the Wybreds would pay handsomely for anyone to deliver the last two Xylites in the entire galaxy, I might even get a bonus if I deliver Carzon alive." Militia stared in shock.

"What do you mean?!" Militia demanded.

"That's the most interesting part of this hunt. Carzon has a rare color for the Xylite race. Normally they are red with large blue eyes, but Carzon is unique in the fact that his colors are reversed. Not only that, but he also has the ability to copy characteristics of animals he comes intact with. Most impressive I'd say." Mimicker finished explaining.

'So he's a rarity of his species?' Militia asked herself.

"So what you're saying is that he's abnormal even among his own kind?" Roman asked.

"That's one way of putting it, but yes." Mimicker answered.

Militia, who had enough of the conversation between the two, let out a annoyed groan and storms out of the room.

"What's eating her?" Junior asked as he watched her retreating form with a raised eye.

"I have no idea, and I don't really care." Roman told him, taking out a cigar from his pocket and biting the end off before lighting it.

"I'll go check on her." Melanie offered, walking out of the room in a slow pace, making sure she was out of sight before breaking out into a run to find her sister.

"Okay then, now that that's all settle and over with." Roman walks around his desk and sits down, inhaling from his cigar before puffing out smoke, soothing his nerves. "Are you going to do everything that we ask of you?" Roman cuts to the chase.

Mimicker walks over to the deck, morphing into his regular form by the time he reaches it. Junior wordlessly lets himself out so he didn't have to see it "I will, but only if your allies do not interfere with my hunt." The now bipedal yellow octopus alien told him.

Roman smirks and hold his hand out, which Mimicker took without hesitation. "Deal."

In their rooms at the Internal Green Hotel, Ren was giving Jaune and Pyrrha a skeptical look.

"So what you're telling us is that you two managed to meet honest to Oum aliens during the date between Ed and Sydney?" Ren asked, not sure whether or not they're pulling his leg.

"It's the truth, we got to meet real aliens!" Pyrrha argued exasperatedly. While Ren responded with skepticism, Nora had a different reaction to the news.

"THEY'RE GOING TO CONQUER THE PLANET AND TAKE ALL OF OUR COWS!" Nora screamed hysterically, any hint of her previous drowsiness gone as she started babbling on about defensive tactics as she zoomed around the living room.

"NORA!" The trio yelled at once, causing the panicking girl to stop in her tracks and stare at them.

"Okay, now that we have your attention. They are not here to conquer the world or steal the cows, they've came in peace...sort of." Jaune said the last part with uncertainty. "And besides, the cows are not even our, it's Earth's cows. Our cows are save at Remnant." This seemed to appease the girl who calmly walked over and sat next to Ren.

"Either way, we should probably check up on them." Ren offered, mostly because he wants to meet the so called 'Aliens' for himself.

"Yeah, and we already told them before we separated from them that we would go over to meet with them later." Pyrrha told him and Nora. "I believe that Sydney told us that they were on this floor on the other side of the hallway."

"Awesome, let's go!" Jaune said as they got up and left their room, walking through the hall of doors until they found the door that they thought was right.

"Room 700, I think this is the right room." Jaune said as he extended his arm to knock on the door, only for the door to swing open and smack Jaune right in the face. As Jaune fell backwards towards the floor, a blue blur ran through the door and down the hallway, followed by a red blur that was going to same speed.

"CARZON! I'M GOING TO TEAR OFF YOU DAMN LIMBS!" Akeiro yelled angrily from the top of his lungs as he pushed his legs harder to catch his brother.

"FOR PETE'S SAKE AKEIRO! I SAID I WAS SORRY!" Carzon frantically yelled as he also pushed himself to outrun his brother.

"I"LL SHOW YOU SORRY!" Akeiro roared started to close the gap between them with a anger fueled burst of speed. Carzon screamed in horror and doubled his efforts to get away from his fellow Xylite.

"Were those the so-called aliens?" Ren asked as he and Nora watched the cat and mouse chase, the latter laughing hysterically as she urged them to go faster. "Because they seem like normal, everyday siblings to me."

His question fell on deaf ears because Pyrrha was helping Jaune up while Jaune was covering his bleeding nose.

Sydney dashed out the room, looking distressed and hassled. "You two get back here!" Sydney yelled at the duo. "Your going to cause a scene!"

"They already did." Jaune told her blankly, his voice sounding nasally from holding his nose to keep the blood from leaking out onto his clothes. The brunette jumped in surprise and quickly turned to face the four teens with her hand on her chest to ease her racing heart.

"Jesus wept! You surprised me." Sydney told them, easily recognizing Pyrrha and Jaune.

"Sorry about that, we came over to check up on you three. Is this a bad time?" Pyrrha asked the older women.

"No no, it's good. We just...what happened to you?" Sydney suddenly stopped when she noticed Jaune's blood stained face.

"I got hit by the door and now my nose is bleeding." Jaune told her.

"Oh...I'm guessing it's when they came running out?" Sydney guessed. She got her answer when all four of them nodded their heads. "Right, sorry about that. How about we get a wet rage for you." Sydney was about to go inside.

"Wait, what's all the fuss about? Why is the red one chasing the blue one?" Ren stopped her with his question. Sydney eyes shifted uncomfortably.

"It's Carson...he told someone about their secret." Sydney grimly explained. Pyrrha's and Jaune's widened while Nora and Ren looked at her in confusion.

"What's so bad about that?" Nora asked. Sydney's shifted nervously before moving and beckoning them inside the room.

"I'll explain inside." Sydney told them.

"What about those two?" Jaune questioned her, only for her to shake her head and give him a weak smile.

"They'll be fine. They'll probably be back in a few minutes." Sydney said as she urged them inside. "Please get in." Deciding to follow her orders, the four members of Team JNPR walked inside.

Sydney led them to the small living room, which looked exactly like the one in their room. Team JNPR sat on the couch in front of the coffee table while Sydney went to get a wash cloth for Jaune, returning a minute later and gave it to Jaune before sitting in the chair to their side.

"Before we begin, I think that introductions are in order." Sydney said with a smile and placing her hand on her chest. "My name is Sydney Reeves."

"Greetings, my name is Lie Ren." Ren was the first to introduce himself in a calm manner.

"And I'm Nora Valkyrie! The most awesome person in the world!" Nora chimed .

Sydney giggled softly. "It's nice to meet you two." Sydney cheerfully told them.

"Great, we all know who each other are. So what's exactly is going on? Who did Carzon talk too?" Pyrrha asked, getting to the point.

Sydney's cheerful smile twisted into a serious frown.

"He revealed his and Akeiro's existence to some girl he met and told her about his species." The brunette grimly explained. The team's expression became concerned.

"That's not good." Jaune said, knowing that if the person the blue Xylite told his secret to leak the information to the government, then it could be curtain time for Carzon and Akeiro, as well as, Sydney because of her attempts to hide them.

"Did he happen to describe what she looks like or her name?" Ren inquired. Sydney looked thoughtful.

"Well he didn't tell us her name, but he did say that she had short, black hair, pale green eyes, wears red makeup and a red strapless dress with black lining." The female friend of Carzon and Akeiro recited before remembering something else. "Also, she apparently uses a pair of red and black claws with two blades each."

Her description of the girl set off red flags in the team's heads. "Hold up, don't we know someone who looks like that?" Pyrrha asked, feeling that she met someone like that before, but where?

"He also said something about him being her boyfriend or something." Sydney explained further, surprising the four by that tidbit of information. "But from the way he told us that, I don't think that he really knows what that means."

"Hmm, interesting." Ren chuckled good-naturedly as Jaune took the now slightly bloody rag off his face and turned towards Sydney, shooting her a thoughtful expression.

"While on the subject of Carzon and Akeiro, how long have they been on this world?" Jaune questioned their host.

"They haven't been here too long, about six months give or take a few days." Sydney answered his question honestly.

"Are you three close to one another?" Pyrrha asked next.

Sydney couldn't help but smile. "Even though we only known each other for only a little bit, we've actually became really close to one another." Sydney told them. I was a only child growing up so have those two around makes me feel like I have two little brothers that I look after."

"So you're like their big sister? Awwww!" Nora cooed, finding it adorable. The older girl chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Ever since they became part of my life, my life became nothing short of a blast." Sydney said fondly.

"I bet that having them around makes everything seem so much better." Jaune told her with a smile. "I can't imagine what it would be like if I didn't have my seven sisters in my life."

Sydney stared at Jaune in shock, mouthing "7?!" under her breath.

"Would you mind telling us how you met them?" Pyrrha asked, shaking the brunette out of her trance.

"Oh yes!" Sydney quickly said as she organized her mind. "I guess it's about time I told the story to someone."

"Oh boy! Storytime!" Nora exclaimed excitedly, grinning ear to ear as she practically vibrated in her seat. Ren rolled his eyes and placed his hand on her shoulder to keep her still.

"Calm down Nora, let's hear her out before you get to excited." Ren told her, getting a nod from the orange haired Valkyrie.

"This is going to be great!" Jaune said as he leaned forward in anticipation.

Seeing that she had their attention, Sydney began her story on how she met the two Xylites.

"All right, it all started six months ago-" Sydney began.

~6 months ago~

Sydney was sitting at a bus stop bench with two suitcases sitting on the ground beside her. She had recently graduated Medical School and wanted to pursue her dream of traveling the world while she still can.

Sydney giggled with giddy excitement as she kicked her feet back and forth. "I can't believe that I'm finally going to do this! I'm finally going to see the world!" Sydney said with glee. "Just like I always dreamed off for so long, I hope that I can meet interesting people on the way." An idea popped into the brunette's head, she reached into her pocket and took out her cell phone then held it at arm's length.

"I should take a selfie so I can look back on this day and remember when my dreams became true." Sydney told herself as she centered her phone. As she was about to take the picture, she heard something coming her way but ignored it for a moment in favor of taking the picture, assuming that the bus had finally arrived. When she finally took the picture, she heard a sound that sounded like a rocket flying behind her.

"What the heck?!" Sydney exclaimed, turning around to see what the sound was. To her confusion, she didn't spot the source of the strange sound and shrugged as she turned her attention to her phone and decided to look at her newest photo.

"I wonder how it turned o-" Sydney paused when she examined the selfie and noticed something strange in the photo. In the foreground of the picture was her, smiling at the camera. That wasn't what she found strange, but what caught her attention was a silver blur that was positioned behind her when she took the picture.

'That's strange...' Sydney thought as she turned around again to see if the silver thing was there, only to see that it wasn't.

"What could that be?" Sydney wondered to herself until the sound of a explosion rippled through the air, scaring the bejesus out of her and made her drop her phone in fright.

"What the hell was that!?" Sydney yelled as she shot up from her seat snapped her head towards the direction of the explosion. She watched the area, hoping that whatever caused the explosion would make itself known. After a few minutes, however, nothing came along. She bent down and picked up her phone then turned it on to look at the time.

"Looks like I have some time left before the bus comes for me." Sydney mumbled to herself. "I might as well go see what made that explosion."

Sydney slipped her phone into her pocket and took a deep breath before taking tentative steps towards the explosion zone. Within a short minute of walking, Sydney began to notice a few trees that looked like they were recently pushed down and a long and wide line dug through the ground with flames surrounding the edges. It looked as if something made a crash landing.

"Just follow the broken dirt road Sydney." The brunette told herself as she followed the furrow in the ground, making sure to stay away from the small fires as she slowly made her way to the end of the line. As she neared the path of destruction's end, she finally found the source of the explosion and the destruction. It was an oddly shaped, silver colored jet-like vehicle that looked like something straight from an old Science Fiction movie. Sydney stopped twenty feet away from it as she examined it more thoroughly.

"Golly..." The med school graduate said in awe as she walked closer to it. She glances to upper part of the side and notices that there was a circular hatch was open, showing the darkness inside it. She narrows her eyes at the opening to focus her vision before her eyes widen in shock when she sees something human shaped inside it. The strange being had a silver, metallic-like head, neck, hands, shoulders, knees, and feet while its torso, arms, legs, and waist was red. Its silver hands has three fingers on each and it has a large red eye that took up most of its face. But what grabbed her attention the most was the fact that the robotic alien arms were clutching its chest as cyan blood leaked out from some gashes.

Despite the fact that she had no worldly knowledge of what that life form was, Sydney's concern for an injured individual overrode her concern for herself if the alien was hostile or not.

"Hold on! I'm going to help you!" Sydney called out towards the red eye alien, unaware of the alien standing behind her. This one had a similar body structure as the injured one in the ship, except that this one's had grey hands, shoulders, knees, feet, neck, and head; red arms, torso, legs, and waist and its eye was blue. The gray alien wrapped its right arm over her next and pulled her to its body.

"Fru yna oui?!" (Who are you?!) The alien interrogated her aggressively, strengthen his hold threateningly.

"W-what?!" Sydney asked, starting to panic.

"Damm sa fru oui yna un E femm gemm oui!" (Tell me who you are or I will kill you!) The red and grey alien growled at her, narrowing its blue eye as its patience becoming thin.

"P-Pnudran?...Ec dryd oui?" (B-Brother?...Is that you?) The silver and blue weakly called out from his spot in the ship. The robot alien holding Sydney captive immediately drops her like a sack of potatoes and rushed towards its brother.

"Carzon! Yna oui ymm famm?" (Carzon! Are you well?) The red and grey alien asked, sounding very concerned.

The blue and silver alien robot reaches his hand out towards his brother, shaking weakly as the aggressive alien quickly grasped the outstretched hand and holds it tightly as he whispers comforting words towards his injured sibling.

Sydney felt a sympathetic ache in her heart as she watched the two siblings interact.

'They must be siblings.' Sydney rationalized their behavior. 'I have to do something.' With minimal hesitation, Sydney approached the duo, making sure to appear non threateningly so the alien that was aggressively holding her not even five minutes ago wouldn't attack her. Once she was behind him, Sydney tentatively placed her hand on his shoulder, causing the red and gray robot to spin around glared at her.

"I can help." Sydney told him, trying hard to hide her discomfort at being arms length of the aggressive alien. In response, the alien made a noise that sounded like a scoff.

"Mega E fuimt dnicd cusa pewynna, vmacro lnaydina mega oui!" The red alien snapped at her. (Like I would trust some bizarre, fleshy creature like you even come near my brother!)

Just then, the blue alien spoke up. "Please, brother...I think she can help us." The blue alien told his brother in perfect English, shocking Sydney immensely.

"Y-you can speak English?!" Sydney said shocked that an alien was able to speak English so fluently like he is now.

The blue alien nodded. "Certainly, I tried to learn every language that I could from many different regions of the galaxy." The alien explained weakly. "My brother over there can speak your language too, though I had to force him to do so."

Sydney turned to look at the other alien, who gave her a dry look. "Are you sure that we can trust this thing?" The red alien asked warily, speaking English as well as his brother. The brunette pouted at being called a thing.

"First off; I'm not a thing, I'm a women and will be referred to as her or she." Sydney told him, making him roll his eye and cross his arms as he mumbled "Whatever." "Secondly, I'm going to try to help him, but I'll need your help to get him out of the ship so I can examine him better."

"Fine, but don't try anything." The red alien warned her before turning around and wrapping his arms around his brother carefully and took him out of the ship, gently laying him down on the ground. After saying a quick thanks to him, Sydney crouches down to look at the injuries and notices the three gashes on his chest...as if something to rip his entire torso off.

"Can you tell me how this happened?" Sydney gently asked him.

The second she asked that, both the aliens adopted haunted looks.

"We were attacked...by the Wybreds." The blue alien told her. Sydney could pick up the sad undertone of his answer.

"Wybreds?" Sydney asked, not familiar with the word or the species.

The more aggressive alien growled at the mention of that name. "They're a bunch lowlife mutts that'll kill anything or anyone for a price." He hissed with pure hatred. "Damn bastards deserve to be eradicated by a supernova!" Sydney flinched at his tone as her patient continued the explanation.

"They took everything from us. Our home, our friends, our...family. They slaughtered our entire race, we're the only ones that managed to survive the carnage. One of them injured me when we made our way to our escape pod." The blue alien explained, pointing towards the ship behind them.

"I...see." was Sydney's reply, not knowing what to say to that so decided to change the subject. "I'm going to need some bandaged to wrap your injury with and something to wipe away the...blood? Is this blood?" Sydney asked, not sure what the blue substance leaking out of the alien was.

"I'm not really sure what blood is, but it sounds like it is your equivalent to this, so I guess that would be it." The red eyes alien answered.

Sydney nodded, happy to know what she was working with. "Alright, I have a medical kit in my luggage, but I left it at the bus stop. I'll go fetch it real quick." Sydney started to get up, only to be pushed, not so gently back down by the red and gray alien.

"Oh no, the only thing you're going to be doing is staying here with my brother." The metal alien told her. "I don't trust you on your own so I'll get it." The alien turned and headed towards where Sydney came from. "...Once I find out what the fracking hell a bus is." The blue eyed alien mumbled to himself as he walked through some bushes to find her bag, leaving Sydney and his brother behind.

"He does know that leaving you with me is not that safe as well right?" Sydney asked the alien, flabbergasted by the departed one's logic.

The blue alien chuckled. "Yeah, sometimes he's not the brightest star in the sky." The Alien told her, making her chuckle. "I'm Carzon by the way." Carzon greeted her.

Sydney smiled and held out her hand. "I'm Sydney." Carzon stared at her hand for a moment before realizing that this was probably the way that humans greeted each other. So he held out his arm at her face.

"Nice to meet you Sydney." Carzon greeted her.

Sydney looked at his three fingered hand that was inches from her face and chuckled good-naturedly. "Um...that's not how you shake someone's hand." Sydney corrected him, making him tilt his head in confusion.

"Really? Then how does this 'handshake' works?" Carzon asked her.

"Alright, first you hold out your hand like this." The college graduate instructed him, holding her right hand out like she had moments before. "Then you take your hand and grab my outstretched one, and gently grab my outstretch hand then gently squeeze it.

"Alright..." Carzon said in understanding and gingerly grab her hand with his right hand and gently squeezed it. Sydney smiled at his progress and shakes his hand.

"And then we shake hands." Sydney finished his lecture. "And that's how you greet someone with a handshake."

Carzon's eye sparkled in glee as he enthusiastically shook her hand, and arm...and body.

"Th-that's enough!" Sydney told him, not finding the sensation of being shaken up like a milkshake all the pleasant. Doing as she asked, Carzon quickly released her hand and looked at her apologetically.

"S-Sorry about that." Carzon apologized.

"It's fine." Sydney assured him, happy that her stomach was empty because she was sure that she would throw up if she had eaten anything. "It's still a work in progress I guess."

Just then, Akeiro rushed through some bushes at high speeds with Sydney's two suitcases held underneath his arms and skidded to a stop, kicking up a dirt cloud that engulfed Sydney and Carzon, making Sydney start coughing up a storm.

"What...the...heck!" Sydney exclaimed in between coughs.

"Don't worry about it." Akeiro sharply told her with a glare.

Though it was hard to tell, Carzon noticed that the way that Akeiro held himsle seemed a bit…off. It didn't help that he looked a bit scuffed up. "Akerio? Is something wrong?" Carzon asked his brother.

"Nothing realy." Akeiro said, briefly facing his brother before returning his gaze towards Sydney. "I found your junk." Akeiro told her as he dropped the two large suitcases in front of her.

While the young women felt miffed at her things being called junk, Sydney felt relieved. "Great!" Sydney said happily. "Now I can get Carzon fixed up."

"Yeah...about that." Akeiro drawled out, his eye shifting to look away from them. "We might need to find another place to do this."

Both Sydney and Carzon stared at Akeiro with suspension. "Why?/What did you do?" Sydney and Carzon asked respectively.

"Weeeeeell...I might have been spotted by these guys with black and blue outfits and I may have punched one of them in the face when they approached me." Akeiro told them. "And they were chasing me."

Sydney felt her stomach drop. "Well...crabapples." Sydney said with dread, getting Carzon's attention.

"What's wrong Sydney?" Carzon asked worriedly.

"It's the cops! They saw Akeiro and are trying to find him. If they find you two and the ship, then the both of you will be taken by the government and be experimented on!" Sydney was close to hyperventilating at the thought of the two aliens being experimented on.

Akeiro scoffed. "I would like to see them try." The red and grey alien walked over to the ship and taps a random panel, causing it to open up. Akeiro reaches in and pulls out a short staff before pressing a symbol, making the staff extend to its full length with electricity crackling on both ends.

"So long as I have this staff and the burning hatred of my people flaming within my chest, I will take down everyone and everything in my way. For I am Akeiro, the Crimson Champion of the Xylites of Planet Zilo will fight until I have avenged my people." Akeiro declared very loudly.

"Shh! Keep it down Akeiro or they'll hear you!" Carzon told him, looking around nervously as if the local police were about to come charging in out of nowhere. He sighed in relieve when no one came. "Seriously Akeiro, we can't go and fight them like that. We're technically invaders of their world and fighting them will send out the wrong message." Carzon told him.

"He's right." Sydney agreed with Carzon. "We need to get out of here before they spot us." Carzon nodded eagerly at the suggestion.

The look the red and grey alien gave them told the duo that he was not in favor of what they just told them. "As if I'd ever do that!" Akeiro declared, raising his right arm and pounded his chest once. "I never run from any confrontation or fight!"

Sydney stared at the robotic alien in front of her, completely speechless. 'Doesn't he realize that his brother is in no condition to be even near a fight?' Sydney wondered, glaring at the standing alien.

"If we stay here and wait for them to come, your brother is going to be hurt more then he already is!" Sydney told him. "Don't you care about your brother at all?!"

Surprisingly, to Sydney, Akeiro reared back at question as if she just sucker punched with every ounce of strength she had in her body. Akeiro averted his gaze from the brunette and looked at his brother, examining his injury closely before looking at his pleading face.

After a few moments, the aggressive alien's shoulders slumped and he let out a irritated sigh. "Fine...you win." Akeiro told them, making Sydney smile.

"Thank you." Sydney thanked him before standing up, realizing for the first time that she was slightly taller than him and decided to have some fun at Akeiro's expense. "I'll take my cases while you carry your brother...Shorty."

Akeiro sputtered at the nickname she gave him. "Shorty?!" Akeiro exclaimed, only to be ignored by Sydney as she bent over and lifted up the suitcases with only sight difficulty.

"Hurry up; they could be here any second!" Sydney told him, who grumbled while scooping his brother up in a bridle style. They choose a direction and started running, hoping to avoid the police. Mere moments after they disappeared into the trees, six police officers came running in and gawked at the Xylite ship before one of them took out their communicators and called in back-up.

~Present Day~

"-And we've been on the run ever since." Sydney finished telling her story for the four teens.

"Wow." Jaune said in astonishment, amazed at Sydney's first encounter with the brothers. Unlike him, the other members of Team JNPR had forlorn and sad expressions on their faces.

"I have to say, it's horrible that their entire species was wiped out like that." Ren said with his eyes looking down at his hands.

"Yeah, I can't even imagine how this effected them." Pyrrha added. Nora nodded her head slowly in agreement and sniffed before swiping a few tears that she shed. She promised herself that she was going to give them both a big Nora hug when they get back.

"I know, even since then they've been trying their hardest to adapt to how things are here on Earth and they've been doing a great job so far, but Akeiro's rage seems to get worse and worse." Sydney told them.

"It can't be that bad...right?" Despite being the one to asked that, Jaune didn't sound that sure.

Sydney sighed and rubbed her face. "I truly wish I could answer that with a yes, but the hatred within him has too much of a strong grip on him." Sydney rolled up her shirt's right sleeve, revealing an ugly burn mark that was in the shape of a Xylite's hand.

"Not that long ago, Akeiro lost himself to his anger and I tried to calm him down by grapping his shoulder. He quickly turned around and grabbed my arm and accidentally burned it." Sydney told them before quickly rolled down her sleeves, hiding the scar.

The team couldn't help but hiss in sympathy at her wound.

"Is his temper really that bad?!" Pyrrha asked.

"Pretty much." Sydney answered with a shrug. "Whenever something like this happens, he starts acting like a feral animal, destroying anything and everything in sight."

The memory of Akeiro tearing through Kasai and walking towards him and Carzon with malicious intent flashed through Jaune's mind.

"Maybe we should sign him up for anger management, he really needs it." Jaune suggested.

"I'm...not sure that would help." Ren told him, imagining Akeiro in a anger management class and him ending up destroying the place. Just then, Nora's eyes light up.

"OH OH, I HAVE AN IDEA!" Nora exclaimed, bouncing up and down with her arm raised. Everyone else in the room turned their attention towards the pancake lover, waiting for her to reveal her plan.

"What if we...take them to a theme park?" Nora asked them. "Akeiro would have so much fun, that he'll lighten up."

The group stared at her.

"Um...Nora." Ren said as softly as possible. "I'm not sure that would work ei-"

"That might be a good idea." Sydney finally answered, interrupting Ren.

Ren, completely blindsided by her response, stares at her. "Really?" The violet eyes Hunter-in-Training asked her, his eye raised upwards.

"Yeah, I haven't had a chance to take either of them to an amusement park before and it just might do the trick." Sydney explained with a hopeful smile.

"Your right!" Jaune excitedly said, sparkles in his eyes. "There is no better way to alleviate stress and anger then riding on fun rides or winning prizes from the game booths!"

Pyrrha smiled and clapped her hands together. "Then it's settled, were taking Akeiro and Carzon to an amusement park" Pyrrha declared. Nora stood up and pumped both her fists into the air, cheering happily while Jaune, Pyrrha, and Sydney chuckled at her enthusiasm. Ren, however, had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Do any of us even know where any amusement parks are around here?" Ren asked them, causing all happiness and merriment in the room to come to a screeching halt as they realized a glaring flaw in that idea of theirs. The teens from Remnant barely know their way around the city while Sydney, who just arrived at the city just yesterday with Akeiro and Carzon, didn't know the city layout that well either. While the four teens sighed in defeat, Sydney smirked as an idea came to mind.

"Don't worry; I can just get the directions to one of the theme parks on my laptop." Team JNPR watched as Sydney got up and walked to the other room before returning moments later with her laptop bag held triumphantly in her hand.

"This will be a piece of cake." Sydney stated before sitting back down in her seat and taking her laptop out of her bag and starting it up. She cracks her fingers dramatically before she started typing, her fingers striking the keys as fast as lightning. The team couldn't help but be amazed by her typing speed.

Within a span of two minutes, Sydney stopped her search, smiling in victory.

"Here we are!" Sydney declared as she turned the laptop around to show the teens her find. "I found one not that far from here that opened three years ago, it looks like they have fun games, rides, good food, and even a aquarium."

"That's wonderful!" Pyrrha chimed as she looked through the aquarium tab. "I bet they would love to see all these different sea creatures."

"I know I will!" Nora said, fantasizing about swimming with dolphins while eating a funnel cake.

"Let's just hope that Akeiro doesn't attack any of them, the last thing we need to be thrown out because Akeiro picked a fight with a seas turtle or something." Sydney said, ignoring the drool that was dripping out of Nora's mouth, whom was still fantasizing about the funnel cakes.

Ren shook his head. "While I think that taking them to an amusement park is a bad idea, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try...let's just hope that nothing goes wrong." Ren said, still having some doubts about all this.

A few minutes later, the four teens of Remnant left the room after saying goodnight to the friendly brunette and promising to met them early tomorrow so they could make their way to the park. As they walked back to their room, they briefly waved to Akeiro, who was passing by while dragging a tired and grumbling Carzon by his hood. Once they made it to their room, they immediately went to bed, excited for a fun filled and relaxing day at the park.

What could possibly go wrong?


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

Ouk'om's and Xylites Part 1: Trouble in Fun Town

Militia stormed out of the Tartarus club and made her way through the nearly deserted streets, as sheangrily recollected the way that both Roman and Mimicker acted like Carzon was nothing more than a slab of meat they could just use.

"The gall of those two!" Militia growled as she walked along the lamb lit street, causing some less then pleasant looking people she passed by to move out of her way when they saw her peeved expression. "How dare they treat my poor Carzon like some cheap knickknack?! I ought to go back and turn the yellow creep into calamari!"

She was so busy scheming the Ouk'om's demise, that she didn't realize that the hours flew by her until she turned around a corner and had to shield her eyes when the morning sunlight assaulted her eyes.

Militia cursed under her breath before she turned around and dashed towards the direction she came from, hoping to get there as fast as she could.

"Crap! How could I walk all night without realizing that?" Militia chastised herself as she turned a corner, ramming into someone accidentally and knocking both of them to the ground.

"Ow..." Militia moaned before she realized what she did and quickly got off the person she ran into. "I'm so sorry; I should have been watching where I was going!" Militia sincerely apologized, quickly taking not that the person was a older man that looked like he was in his 50's, if the grey hair that was cut in a military style was any indication. The man was wearing dark jeans with a gray Long sleeve shirt and black dress shoes, but the article of clothing that caught the young woman's attention the most was the black eye patch that was covering his right eye.

"It's quite alright dearie." The man assured her as she helped him up. "It was just an accident, and I'm not even hurt."

"Still, I should have watched where I was going." Militia told him as she thought of something to make it up to him. "How about I do something for you?"

A thoughtful expression made its way onto the man's face. "Well...there was a question that I needed answering, I think you might be able to answer it." The man told her.

"What is it?" Militia eagerly asked him.

The man smiled. "I was wondering...is Agent-A still alive?"

His question threw Militia off, out of everything he could have asked of her, that one was the last one she had in mind. "I uh...believe so." Militia replied hesitantly. Her answer seemed to appease the man, who gave her a warm smile.

"That is so good to hear." The man said happily as he placed his hand on Militia's shoulder. "Now if you excuse me, I have a busy day in front of me." With that, the man brushed past her and walked away with a leisurely pace.

Militia blinked at the weird encounter before she walked in the direction that the man came from, this time at a slower pace than the mad dash she was going before the encounter. She was unaware of the grin that the old man had on his face, showing his sharper than average canine teeth.

"It won't be long now...my friend."

~At the Internal Green Hotel~

The moment that the first little crake of light rose from the horizon, Nora woke up and giggled giddily. The pure amount of excitement she felt within her for the day was astronomical. The young Valkyrie was stoked about hanging out at the amusement park with not only her team, but Sydney and her new alien friends. With that in mind, Nora leaped out of bed with one thing on her mind, waking up her friends so they could prepare for the fun filled day. After minutes of rough shaking, yelling in their ears, and having stuff thrown at her and getting glared at, the four were dressed and had congregated in the living room.

"So any ideas on what you want to do with them first when we get there Jaune?" Pyrrha asked the blonde leader.

"Well...I was thinking that we could take the two to see the aquarium first. I'm really curious on what kinds of fish and other marine life they have here." Jaune replied.

"That sounds like a great idea." Ren replied. "We just have to hope that we can keep Nora or Akeiro from breaking anything."

Pyrrha and Jaune grinned at Ren's statement while Nora puffed her cheeks up, not finding it amusing. After they finished getting ready and went to fetched Sydney and the brothers, they all walked to a bus stop to wait for the bus that would take them directly to the park. Akeiro was sitting on the edge of the bus stop bench with his arms crossed over his chest, grumbling grumpily under his breath.

"Could you please explain to me again why you dragged me out here so early in the morning?" Akeiro demanded.

Sydney, who was sitting next to Carzon, rolled her eyes at his tone. "We're taking the bus to the Fun Town Detroit amusement park so you two could unwind and well...have fun." Sydney explained to Akeiro.

Carzon twitched in excitement. "This is so exciting!" Carzon said happily from his spot in-between his brother and Sydney. "I'm looking forward to see what marine life they have in their aquarium exhibit!" Nora, who was leaning on the bus stop sign, nodded eagerly in agreement.

"Yeah, and they have this cool cafe that serves seafood!" Nora excitedly stated before her face drooped sadly. "Blake would have loved to go there." Nora sadly said.

Carzon looks at her with sympathy, getting up and going over to her before placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, I think that Blake would have loved to come with us." Carson said to comfort her. "I would have liked to met him."

Everything went silent as Team JNPR turned to stare at Carzon, which made him shift uncomfortably under their stare.

"She." Ren corrected him. This time, Sydney stared at him, confusion evident in her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Sydney asked the green clad teen.

"Blake is a she, not a he." Ren elaborated. There was a moment of silence as Sydney processed the new information.

"But...isn't Blake a guy's name?" Sydney innocently asked him.

"Well...I guess that 'Blake' does sound a bit more masculine then feminine." Pyrrha pointed out, tapping her chin with her finger in thought.

Jaune snickered. "I wonder how Blake would react to that?" Jaune wondered.

~Meanwhile, in New York City~

Team Ruby and Sean were enjoying breakfast while Yang was telling one of her jokes when Blake suddenly sneezed into the juice she was drinking, causing some of the liquid to splash into her face from the force of the sneeze.

"Geez Blake, say it don't spray it." Yang joked towards the cat Faunus, who glared daggers at the blonde bombshell.

~Back to Detroit~

While they were having their discussion on Blake's name, Carzon noticed that the bus was heading their way.

"Um guy? The bus is here." Carzon told the others, who stopped talking to look at the bus.

Jaune grinned. "Sweet, I was starting to get antsy." Jaune said as the bus slowed down and stopped right in front of them. The door open and the group walked in, buzzing with excitement as they found their seats. But while they were busy sitting down, they didn't notice a sickly looking man with long black, a thin pale face, brown eyes, with a goatee walking onto the bus and sitting behind Carzon with a sinister smile on his face. He was wearing a worn out looking blue striped long sleeved shirt with faded blue jeans and black tennis shoes.

"This will be fun." The man hissed ominously under his breath.

During the ride, the group was happily chatting to each other about what they plan to do at the amusement park. Ren, who was sitting right next to Sydney, was resting his arm on the window while he watched as the outside scenery flew past them with a small smile on his face. The only one that didn't look like they were having fun was Akeiro, who was still grumbling while Jaune tried to strike up a conversation with the disgruntled alien.

"So Akeiro, anything you look forward to doing?" Jaune questioned him.

"Nothing really." Akeiro replied with a short answer, causing Jaune to sweat drop.

"Okay...have any hobbies?" Jaune continued to bombard him with questions in the hopes that he could get Akeiro to open up.

"Punching and cracking skulls." was Akeiro's short response.

"...Want to play a game while we wait?" Jaune asked, not willing to give up.

"No." Akeiro answered bluntly.

Sydney, who was watching from her spot, shook her head. "Well that's going nowhere." Sydney whispered to herself, slightly surprised that Akeiro hadn't snapped at the blonde by now. She was shaken out her thoughts by someone lightly tapping on her shoulder. Sydney turned towards where the tapping came from to see the man that entered the bus behind them and was currently sitting behind Carzon and Pyrrha.

"Hello, my name is...Jeff." The sickly looking man introduced himself, pausing right before he said his name as if he was trying to figure out what to call himself. "I was wondering where your group was going this fine day?"

"Umm...the Fun Town Amusement park." Sydney nervously replied, not sure whether or not she should have told the man.

The man nodded. "That sounds like a fun way to spend the day." The man said approvingly. "Though I do have to ask about your friend with the red jacket." Sydney started to sweat.

"Um...he's my cousin." The brunette quickly told him. Jeff raised his eye and looked over at Akeiro, who currently had Jaune in a headlock and shouting profanities while the others were trying to pry him off the poor blonde's neck.

"I see...and why is he wearing his hood over his head when it's blazing hot in here?" The creepy looking man asked her.

"What can I say? He just loves to wear that hood no matter what the weather is like." Sydney said with a shrug, hoping that it would pacify the man and he would leave her alone.

The man gives her a hard stare, making her feel very uncomfortable until he smiles. "Very well then, I hope that you all have fun there." The sickly looking man eventually said.

Sydney had to resist the urge to sigh in relieve. "Yeah, I'm sure that my cousins and I will have loads of fun at the park." Sydney said as the bus stopped in front of the decently sized amusement park.

The group stood up and exited the bus one by one until they were all together in front of the front gate of the park. Ren reached behind him and pulled out a map that Sydney printed out right before they left the hotel and was trying to figure out the best route to get to the aquarium.

Jaune, on the other hand, was trying to tell a joke to Akeiro and was making sure he was more than a arms length away from the temperamental Xylite.

"So Akeiro, why did the chicken cross the road?" Jaune asked Akeiro, pausing so Akeiro could answer. Akeiro looked at Jaune through his half lidded eye.

"To get ran over by an 18-wheeler truck." Akeiro answered with a deadpan tone, giving Jaune a look that suggested that he wished that an 18-wheeler would come right then and there and run Jaune over.

Jaune reared back at the violent response. "Um no, that's not why it crossed the road." Jaune told the red jacket wearing alien.

"Why would it cross the road?" Carzon, who happened to hear their conversation, asked. "Isn't it too dangerous for a chicken to cross the road?"

Jaune didn't know how to react to this. Luckily for him, Sydney was close enough to hear their confusion and decided to help the blonde boy out.

"No, no, no. There isn't really a chicken, it's just a joke." Sydney explained, having enough experience with settling their confusion throughout the past few months. Despite her experience with explaining to them, some things simply flies over their heads.

"Oh...I don't get it." Carzon admitted.

"Me neither, must be one of those stupid human things." Akeiro rudely stated.

Ren, who was too preoccupied with reading the map to notice their shenanigans, lowered the map and glanced at the group.

"Alright, it looks like we just need to go straight down this lane and to the middle of the park to find the aquarium." Ren explained.

"Awesome!" Nora said excitedly. "We'll be there and see the fishys in no time!" After hearing what Nora said, Carzon became excited and started to hop up and down while chanting 'Yes!' over and over again. His jumping quickly stopped when the group, minus Sydney and Akeiro who were used to it by now, stared at him in confusion.

"Oh um sorry." Carzon said shyly as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I just get excited when I met new and exciting animals."

"I can tell, you seem to really love animals." Pyrrha pointed out, making Akeiro roll his eye.

"You have no idea." Akeiro said in annoyance.

"I just can't help it, for some strange reason I feel a connection to all the animals around me." Carzon explained. "Plus they're fun to talk to." Jaune raised an eye at his last statement.

"Fun to talk too?" Jaune questioned Carzon's choice of words.

"He can talk to animals." Akeiro elaborated for him.

Nora's eyes widens in astonishment. "Oh. My. OUM!" Nora said before shouting, her eyes sparkling as if someone showered her eyes in glitter. "Please, please, PLEEEEASE tell me what they say, I have so many questions!" Nora proceeded to get on her knees and clamped her hands together in a pleading manner, making Carzon EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Ren was dangerous close to laughing.

"Maybe we should get to the aquarium first, then we can talk about what animals says." Ren told her, trying his best not to break out in laughter.

Nora quickly got up with a huge grin on her face. "Okay! Off to the aquarium!" Nora yelled before charging through the entrance and headed straight to the aquarium.

"NORA!" The rest of Team JNPR called out towards her before pursuing her, quickly followed by Sydney, Carzon, and Akeiro. Unbeknownst to all of them, Jeff was following them with a slower pace with a sly grin on his face.

"This is going to be oh so entertaining and rewarding." Jeff said as he walked towards the wall of the park that was shaded. "Not only will I take the biggest score of my life, but I'll have a few more heads mounted on my wall." Within moments, the face of the sickly looking Jeff was replaced by the more youthful and healthy Lie Ren, the only thing remaining was his grin as he leisurely walked inside the park, planning on enjoying himself a little bit before the hunt began.

Meanwhile, the group managed to catch up to Nora right before she got to the ticket booth. Since it was still early, they were the first ones in line for the aquarium. Sydney made her way to the booth and paid for their tickets in.

After thanking the booth attendant, the group made their way inside and was greeted to the sight of a room filled with aquariums tanks of different sizes. Some of them were small and had smaller fish like clownfish that were poking their heads from within sea anemones while others were bigger and had large schools of fish and larger marine life like manta rays and sea turtles.

The group looked around in awe until a particular one caught Jaune's eye.

"Wow, look at this one!" Jaune called out to the others as he pointed to one of the biggest tank in the building. The others looked towards where Jaune was pointed and gawked at what the exhibit contained. Inside the large tank were two Shortfin Mako sharks that were gently drifting over a bed of sand and a small forest of kelp, occasionally making a sharp turn before they hit the glass that made up the walls of their home.

"They're huge!" Pyrrha said breathlessly as she examined the brilliant metallic blue and white coloration of the two underwater predators.

"Yeah, and we got a nice view of them." Jaune said. "Isn't that right Car-" Jaune turned around and stopped talking when he realized that Carzon wasn't in the group anymore. "Where did Carzon go?" Everyone stopped looking at the sharks long enough to see that their alien friend was gone.

"Where could he ha-" Pyrrha started to ask, only to be stopped by Akeiro, who pointed towards the tank.

"Found him." Akeiro said with slight amusement.

Everyone turned to see that Carzon somehow found his way into the tank and was swimming happily with the sharks. Everyone's eyes widened with the exception of Akeiro and Nora, the former simply staring at his brother while the latter stared with excitement and some envy.

Sydney sighed in aggravation. "Not this again, we had a long talk about this Carzon." Sydney said to Carzon, who didn't hear her through the tank and water as he merrily swam around the sharks.

Akeiro shook his head. "We might as well get him out of there."

"Does...he do this a lot?" Jaune asked with concern, not taking his eyes off the sharks as he watched for any aggressive behavior towards the swimming Xylite.

"I would like to say no, but this is like the fifteenth or sixteenth time he did something like this." Akeiro told him. "Maybe when we have the chance, I should tell you all about the one incident with some grizzly bears."

Nora's eyes sparkled in excitement. "That is so cool, I'm so jealous right now!" Nora exclaimed, wishing that she could swim with the large, predatory fish in the tank like Carzon was.

"Alright, we all should go and try to find where Carzon got into the tank in the first place and coax him out of there before he becomes shark bait." Pyrrha told everyone. The group nodded and headed in a random direction.

The group went through a hallway and around the corner.

"So any idea on what we should keep an eye on?" Jaune asked as they looked around, passing doors that were labeled.

"Well, with the way the tanks are designed, the openings to the tanks should be on top, so we need to find where Carzon entered from." Sydney told them.

"That shouldn't be too hard." Nora said confidently. "Isn't that right Ren?" When Nora didn't get an answer, Nora looked around and saw no sign of her friend. "Hey, where did Ren go?"

The group stopped, realizing that he wasn't with them. "Do you think that he might have been left behind?" Pyrrha wondered as she looked the way they came.

"Who knows." Akeiro said without care. "He doesn't look like someone that has good stamina, a bit of a joke if you ask me."

Before anyone could retort at his rudeness, they heard footsteps quickly coming towards them. Within a moment, Ren stopped right in front of them, struggling to catch his breath.

"Sorry about that…something caught my attention and I almost lost you all." Ren said as his breathing evened out.

"It's fine Renny, at least your back with us." Nora chimed happily.

"Yeah yeah, happy reunion and all that junk." Akeiro said with an eye roll. "But we should get back to the problem at hand."

While everyone didn't like how he said that, they couldn't argue that he was right. They needed to find Carzon and find him now. So without anymore distraction, the group moved on and continued the search, missing the glint in Ren's eyes as he followed them from the back.

Within a minute, they all found a staircase that lead up.

"That looks promising." Jaune pointed out as the group went up a the stairs and found a door at the top that had a plaque with "Keep Out, Tank Room" written in bold letters.

"I think this is it." Nora pointed out, pointing at the plaque with a triumphant grin.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Pyrrha said.

They looked around to make sure no one was watching and that there wasn't any security camera around. When they saw that there wasn't any, they slowly opened the door and walked in. Once inside, they found themselves in a square room with walkways that was a few feet above the open tanks.

"Wow, this place is neat!" Sydney stated as she looked over the side to see colorful fish swimming in the tank below them.

"We can't get distracted, we need to find the shark tank now." Pyrrha said urgently as they walked around the room for the tank in question. After a few minutes, they found the tank that they were looking for.

"I think this is it." Sydney guessed as she peered over the side.

Jaune nodded, looking over the railing as well. "I think so too, we should get him out of there before-" Jaune stopped when he noticed something floating to the service, something blue.

"I-isn't that Carzon's-" Jaune's question was answered for him when the object in question reached the service, revealing it as Carzon's signature jacket. And it looked like that is was ripped in places.

The group stared at the clothing with mortified expressions on their faces.

"Guys, I...I think they got them." Jaune said, sounding like he couldn't believe what he was saying despite him saying it.

Sydney dropped on her knees and stared blanking at the tank. "No...nononoNO!" Sydney cried out before sobbing, holding her hands to her face while she wept. Everyone's face became mournful at the news, all except Akeiro and the imposter, the latter shaking angrily at the turn of events.

"I...I barely had a chance to even know him." Nora said before hugging her childhood friend, shaking him from his anger as he awkward patted her on the back.

"There there Nora." Ren said in an attempt to comfort her.

Their sad moment was interrupted when the water underneath them exploded and Carzon leapt out of the water and landed in front of them. Carzon had a blue metallic dorsal fin on top of his head and two silvery ones on either side of his head as well as larger ones on each arm. His hands had webbing in-between each of his three fingers and his feet resembled diving fins that scuba divers used.

"C-Carzon?" Sydney weakly called out, causing him to turn around and wave to them.

"Hiya guys." Carzon greeted them happily. "Did you come to swim with the sharks too?"

The group looked at him disbelievingly.

"How are you alive?" Pyrrha asked him. "No offence, but the sharks should have attacked you."

Carzon looked at her quizzingly. "What are you talking about? Anna and Drago are really nice." Carzon told them. "Speaking of which, do you want to meet them?" As he said that, the two sharks poked their bodies out of the water and waved at them as best as they could with their side fins. Nora waved enthusiastically waved back while the others waved awkwardly.

"Yeah, they're not so bad once you take the time to get to know them personally." Carzon stated, gazing downwards at the sharks as they submerged themselves back into the water. "Sharks are just misunderstood creatures, just like most animals that are labeled as dangerous."

At that point, Sydney slapped her forehead as if she remembered something important. "Oh right, I forgot all about that." Sydney said to herself.

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked, being close enough to hear her.

"I just remembered that Carzon has a way to pacify animals that comes near him, even ones that are normally very aggressive." Sydney explained. "So we didn't need to worry about him at all."

"Yeah." Akeiro said with amusement before facing the group. "Remember when I mentioned an incident with some bears?" The team nodded, though the fake Ren was more hesitant. "So this one time a month back, the three of us were hiding in the woods because some feds spotted us in a town that was nearby. When we set up our camp, a big Grizzly bear and her cubs stumbled upon us and started to growl at us."

Nora grinned widely and started to vibrate excitedly and mumbled at how cool the story was so far.

Akeiro rolled his eye and continued. "Sydney started to freak out while I, being how awesome I am, was ready to fight them off. But before I could show them my fighting skills, Carzon walked up to the big one and stared her right in the eyes. A few seconds later, it licked his face and gave him a hug before it left with its brats."

Nora's eyes sparkled after Akeiro finished the story. "That's so amazing!" Nora gushed as she ran up and started to interrogate the now surprised Xylite for more stories. While this was happening, Carzon was looking around with a worried expression.

"Hey Jaune...have you seen my jacket?" Carzon asked Jaune, who leaned over the railing and pointed towards the tank that the red-eyed Xylite was swimming in not even five minutes ago.

"It's down there." Jaune pointed out.

Carzon looked at where Jaune was pointing and stared at his jacket.

"...Sigh. I'll be back." Carzon in defeat before he leapt over the edge and dived into the tank to retrieve his jacket. He was unaware of the look that Ren was giving him.

Nora glanced over towards him to say something but stopped when she saw his expression and felt slightly unnerved by the fact that it was on her friend's face.

"Ren? Are you okay?" Nora asked with concern.

The Ren quickly wiped the look off his face and threw a quick, small smile at her.

"Everything's fine Nora." The violet eyed teen told her. "I'm just glad that Carzon is safe is all." He held\ his breath, hoping that she would buy it. Luckily for him, all she gave him was a small frown before smiling.

"Alright Ren, I'm glad to hear it." Nora said before returning to her conversation with Akeiro, much to Akeiro's dismay. Just then, Carzon leapt back out the water and landed back with the group, his jacket held firmly in his hand.

"It's a bit torn up, but I got it." Carzon stated before he slipped the jacket back on him, making sure to match the tears with his arm fins.

"That's a relief." Jaune said as he swiped some sweat off his forehead. "So after Carzon turns back to normal, what do you guys want to do?"

After some thought, Sydney had a suggestion. "Maybe we should take a break and go have some seafood." Sydney suggested.

"I second that!" Nora said with her hand raised.

With that the group left the room and went back down to the first floor, happily chatting away as they made their way to the food court, completely unaware that two familiar looking girls were peeking their heads around the corner and spying on them.

"Militia, why are we here? This is a waste of time!" Melanie said with her lips pursed together in a scowl.

"We can't leave yet!" Militia frantically told her twin with determination, not taking her eyes off Carzon as he got farther away. "We have to stop that walking calamari buffet from hurting my darling!"

The white clad girl rolled her eyes at Militia's determined expression. "And how do you know that he is even going to be here anyway?"

Militia finally broke eye contact with the back of Carzon's head to look at her sister, a bead of sweat going down her forehead.

"Well..."

~Flashback begin: Earlier that morning~

Militia was panting heavily as she stopped in front of the bar, having ran the whole way back and getting lost a few times.

"Finally...I'm back." Militia gasped, on the edge of collapse from a mixture of over exertion and not sleeping the previous night.

She entered the building and made her way through the bar as she headed towards the stairs. "At least...I can get some sle-"

"-So the brats are on their way to Fun Town Amusement Park then?" Roman said from the top of the stairs as he started to walk down with a Earth phone held to his head. Militia, caught completely by surprise by Roman's sudden appearance, frantically looked around before diving towards the bar and hiding behind in a crouch.

"Yes, I managed to overhear their plans when I went over to spy on them a little bit ago." Militia faintly heard Mimicker say from the phone as Roman made it to the bottom of the stairs and stood there.

"Are you planning on tailing them?" Roman asked as he started to pace through the seating area.

"Of course, I also plan on taking them out one by one until I can catch the Xylites." Mimicker told them. "That way we will be happy as clams by the end of the day."

Militia had to slap her hand over her mouth to stop herself from gasping out loud. Roman, on the other hand, smirked cockily.

"That's very good." Roman stated before frowning. "But make sure that you don't botch this up like the others we hired."

"Don't worry, I don't plan too." Mimicker told him before the sound of multiple people chattering was heard. "Got to go, the group is already moving out."

"Very well then, but remember this Mimicker, do not fail." Roman warned Mimicker before hanging up and sighing, taking out a cigar and lighting it before go back up stairs.

Once he was gone, Militia swiftly stood up, shaking in rage. 'I don't care what Roman does to me, it'll be a cold day in hell before I let that slimy octopus touch my man!' The red clad girl though as she stormed up the stair to go wake up her sister and then go protect her boyfriend.

And maybe they'll enjoy a nice dish of calamari when they reunite.

~Flashback end~

"Just to let you know, I was having a nice dream." Melanie grumpily told her sister after Militia finished her story. Militia rolled her eyes.

"Stop complaining, we need to find Mimicker before he gets my love!" Militia stated before walking away in a huff. Melanie rolled her eyes and followed her, knowing that she'll probably have to stop her twin before she did something stupid.

"So how would we know when Mimicker is around? With that creepy morphing ability, he could be anyone." Melanie pointed out.

Militia stopped at a corner when she realized that her sister was right. "Crap, I completely forgot about that!" Militia scolded herself for her forgetfulness, sighing once she was finished. "We'll just have to go with our gut feeling I guess.

Just then, they heard noises coming from behind the door next to them, making them jump into their battle stances while facing the door.

"Did you hear that?" Melanie asked her sister.

"Yeah, I think that it came from this door." Militia said.

They slowly approached the door and flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the wall. The Malachite sisters share a look and nodded, Melanie slowly wrapping her hand around the doorknob and turned it centimeters. They took deep breaths and quickly threw open the door and readied themselves for a fight. But when they examined the tiny room, they didn't see anything or anyone.

"Huh, I guess something must have fallen or something." Militia said, relaxing her stance at the false alarm.

"Well that was a bunch of-" Melanie stopped mid rant when she heard weak breathing coming from under them. They both looked down to see something that caught them by surprise.

"...Well at least we know who Mimicker is now." Melanie pointed out after a few moments of staring,.

~Back with the Group~

Everyone was sitting down at two tables that were close together while Sydney volunteered to get everyone's food for them. Nora was asking Carzon some questions about what crazy animals he talked to and what they told him. Carzon looked like he was more than happy to talk to her about them as he talked adamantly about some crazy things animals told him over the months he's been here on Earth.

Jaune was trying to get Akeiro to open up while Akeiro tried not to strangle him out of frustrations. The odd ones out were Pyrrha and Ren, both of whom were simply watching the four converse with each other.

"It's great to see that they're all getting along aright, isn't it Ren?" Pyrrha asked the martial artist before her face went blank. "Well except Akeiro of course, but at least he's not causing anything."

Ren shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, it shouldn't take Akeiro too much longer until he tears Jaune in two." Ren said causally, as if he was talking about the weather instead of the blonde knight being horribly torn in half.

Pyrrha looked at Ren in horror. She was about to scold Ren for saying something like that before she got distracted by Sydney returning with five plates, two of which were held in her hand while three were balanced on her arms.

"Foods here!" Sydney declared, carefully placing the plates in front of each person. Nora's plate had Calamari on it. Jaune had steamed shrimp with cocktail sauce in a small plastic cup. Ren had ordered three rolls of Maki sushi. Pyrrha wanted to try the lobster tails so ordered two of them. Finally, Sydney had tilapia seasoned with pepper seasoning.

Jaune was about to dig into his shrimp when he noticed that neither Akeiro nor Carzon had ordered anything.

"Aren't you two going to eat?" Jaune asked the brothers.

Carzon shook his head. "We don't need food like humans do." Carzon explained. "Plus if we did, we don't have mouths."

They were flabbergasted at that. "How are you two even able to survive?" Pyrrha questioned them.

Carzon and Akiero glanced at each other. "Well." Carzon said. "We're both powered by a battery that contains a mineral found in and around our planet that radiates powerful energy that flows through our bodies." Carzon explained. "So the only thing we really need to ingest is coolant that stops us from overheating."

The group grew interested by the mention of them being battery powered. "So how long does the battery last?" Ren asked.

"It usually last around one hundred to two hundred years depending on the power usage of the Xylite it's in." Akeiro told the surprised group. "So we should be fine for awhile until we need out battery checked, we had our last battery change some time ago."

"If they last so long...how old are you two?" Jaune curiously asked.

"We both turned 318 Earth years old three months before we came here." Carzon told them.

"Holy, that's old!" Jaune exclaimed in shock, everyone else was flabbergasted by this as well with the exception of Sydney, who nodded.

"Believe it or not, that's actually pretty young to our kind's standards." Carzon stated.

"Really? Three hundred-eighteen is young for your species?" Pyrrha said in disbelieve.

"Pretty much." Akeiro shrugged. "Before our planet was ravaged by those mangy mutts, there were some Xylites who were pushing over six thousand years old. Now that is old."

Sydney chuckled and wrapped her arm around Pyrrha's shoulders. "Don't worry about it too much, I had trouble wrapping my head around it too." Sydney admitted. "I sometimes forget how old they are with how they act."

"HEY/That's mean Sydney!" Akeiro and Carzon said together at her jab.

Nora snorted in laughter. "Just imagine how many candles would be in that cake." Nora stated.

"It would be more candle then cake." Jaune joined in.

"Anyway, we should eat our food now so we can explore the rest of the pa-" Pyrrha was interrupted when Militia drops down on the table from now where and levels her claws at Ren's neck.

The group leapt to their feet in surprise, Carzon instantly recognized Militia.

"Militia?! What are you doing?!" Carzon shouted, causing his friends to stare at him in surprise.

"Militia? Who is that?/Who the hell is this chick?!" Sydney and Akeiro asked/demanded respectively. The eyes of the other members of JNPR widened when they realized who this young women was.

"YOU!" Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora exclaimed, getting into their battle stances, wishing that they brought their weapons along with them. Sydney looked from Team JNPR, and the women that looked around her age in confusion.

"Okay, can anyone explain what in the world is happening here?" Sydney demanded. Carson didn't have the chance to answer because Militia decided to answer her question.

"I'm here to save my darling." Militia answered, not taking her glaring eyes off Ren's oddly calm face.

"Darling?" The group asked.

"Yeah, this is the girlfriend I mentioned about last night." Carzon spoke up.

"Okay, hold everything!" Jaune exclaimed, holding his hands out in an attempt to stop everyone from doing anything rash. "So you're telling us that this girl is your girlfriend?" Jaune asked.

"A criminal of all people? And the same one that you told about your people." Pyrrha added, causing Militia to shot a scathing look towards the red head.

"Why yes, is there something wrong with her being my girlfriend?" Carzon asked, his red eye narrowing in confusion.

"Do you even know what a girlfriend is?" Sydney questioned the gentle Xylite.


	11. Chapter 11

Ouk'om's and Xylites Part 2: Trouble in Fun Town

"Um…a friend that is a girl?" Carzon answered unsurely.

Everyone stared at Carzon while Sydney smacked her hand to her forehead.

"What?" Carzon asked in response to the reaction to what he thought girlfriend meant.

"It doesn't matter right now!" Jaune spoke out, glaring at Militia who stared back with a neutral expression. Jaune really wished that he had his weapons on him right now. "Right now we have to deal with her before she kills our friend."

"Look here you blonde screw up; I might not like any of you with the exception for Carzon, but I'm not here to kill you or your friends." Militia stated matter-of-factly.

"Then why are you holding your weapon to Ren's throat?!" Pyrrha demanded. "If you're not here to hurt us, then why don't you lower your weapon and step away from him!"

Militia laughed at her demand. "First off, don't you think for a moment that I would listen to you. Secondly…if you were really your friend, then surely any of you would have realized by now that something was off with this nimrod."

Ren looked like he wanted to argue about being a nimrod, but changed his mind as he eyed the blade to his throat. The others, however, were more than willing to argue with Junior's associate.

"That's ridicules! There's nothing wrong with Ren!' Jaune jumped to Ren's defense.

"He's right, I bet just saying that to psyche us out!" Pyrrha joined in.

Nora was oddly silent as she gave Ren a hard stare.

"...She's right." Nora said without a hint of uncertainty.

Everyone snapped their heads towards the orange haired hammer wielder, looking at her as if she just grew two extra heads that were capable of shooting laser beams from their eyes.

"What do you mean?!" Sydney inquired, not believing that the teenage girl she just met was agreeing with someone that was threatening their friend.

"Yeah, what the hell are you on about?!" Akeiro rudely demanded.

"That's just it, Ren has always been a bit quiet for as long as I could remember. But ever since we came here he's been quieter than usual." Nora said before frowning. "And...I've been noticing the small looks he's been giving Carzon after we got him out of the fish tanks, like he was obsessed with him or something."

Militia nodded. "Good, at least one of you has been paying attention." Militia said, flashing a smile of approval towards Nora.

Nora smiles back at the red Malachite twin for the praise before glaring daggers at the imposter.

"Now tell us who you are and what you did to Ren before I break your legs with the table!" Nora threatened as the faker stared to sweat.

"NORA!" Jaune exclaimed. "You can't be seriously listening to someone that's siding with the enemy!"

"But she's right." A familiar voice rang out from behind them. Everyone turned and were shocked speechless to see Ren walking towards them with Melanie besides him.

"RENNY!" Nora cheered happily as she rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around him, swinging around as Ren tried his hardest to maintain his balance. Every continued to stare at the sight in front of them.

"What in the world is going on?!" Sydney exclaimed, completely bamboozled at the turn of events.

"If that's really Ren...then who is he?" Pyrrha asked, pointing from Ren to the one that Militia was watching over. The fake Ren, who knew that his cover was blown, stared to mentally panic as he face started to ooze.

Akeiro and Carzon saw the ooze and instantly realized who they were dealing with.

They shared a knowing look before facing the imposter.

"You might as well show us who you really, there's no point in hiding behind a fake face anymore." Carzon told the fake.

"Or you can ignore him and I can beat your ugly face in." Akeiro added, pounding his fist into his hand for emphasis. Knowing that he has nothing else to lose, the imposter obliged as his face and clothes started to change. The group watched in disgust and fascination, Militia and Melanie quickly turned away, as his exposed skin turned yellow and the clothes turned silvery before they rippled, stopping until the being turned back into Mimicker.

"So we meet again my precious game." Mimicker greeted politely. Akeiro was in a less then polite mood.

"You have some nerve showing yourself around here, especially what you tried last time you stalked us!" Akeiro growled angrily.

"Um...who and what is this guy?" Jaune asked, staring unsurely at alien.

"His name is Mimicker, a high rank Ouk'um poacher that's been chasing us for months now." Carzon explained for the blonde knight.

"Everything about him creeps me out, especially how he transform." Sydney stated, swallowing some bile that threatened to come up just from the memory of his transformation.

"Tell me about it." Melanie and Militia said at the same time, gagging slightly at the memory the disgusting display of his power from last night.

Pyrrha ignored them and leveled a glare at Mimicker. "Why are you here and why did you impersonate Ren?" Pyrrha demanded.

"Nothing much really, just decided that a stroll around the city would be fun and what the hell do you think I'm here for?!" Mimicker said calmly at first before snapping at her. "I'm here to acquire my targets; why else would I even be in this backwater planet for? For shits and giggles? And the only reason why I changed into that boy was simply because he was at the back of the group and I saw my chance to strike and take his place." Mimicker explained before his face contorted into a smirk.

"And you peons didn't even suspect a thing until the two interlopers decided to screw everything up." Mimicker said getting glares from the group before the poacher threw a glare towards the twin sisters. "And why are you here anyway?!"

"I'm here to protect my boyfriend from your slimy tentacles." Militia said with a sneer.

Melanie gave him a bored look and shrugged. "I'm only here because Militia literally dragged me out of bed." Melanie told them.

Mimicker chuckled darkly. "Your pitiful reasons don't really matter in the end, all of you are going to be dead within the hour and the Xylite's will be in my possession." Mimicker said ominously.

Militia scoffed at that. "We out number you and have you surrounded, how are you going to 'kill' us?" Militia challenged him.

Mimicker continued to smirk. "Outnumbered yes...out match, I think not." Before they could interpret what he said, two of Mimickers tentacles stretched to insane lengths and wrapped themselves around Militia and Melanie before shaking them like rattles. Once they were disorientated, the intergalactic poacher tossed them towards a wall, which crumbled upon contact.

"MILITIA!" Carzon yelled in distress, rushing towards them in hopes that they were alright.

The rest of the group excluding Sydney got into their battle stances, with Pyrrha making the first move by using her semblance to levitate three chairs in a black aura and sent them towards Mimicker at high speed. In response, Mimicker melded his other two tentacles together and effortlessly swatted them away.

Once he split his bigger tentacle back into two Mimicker held up his arm and aimed it at Pyrrha, which extended in a similar manner as his tentacles, distracting Pyrrha long enough for the outstretched hand to grip her throat. The arm detracted and dragged Pyrrha towards the poacher, causing the rest of the team to yell her name. Once the red haired warrior was near his face, Mimicker chuckled.

"Not that it really needs to be explained at this point, but not only can I shape shift, I can also stretch my appendages to whatever length I desire." Mimicker gloated. "And another thing-"

Mimicker lifted one of his tentacles towards Pyrrha's face and slapped it hard enough to leave a scratch that left a blue stain on her cheek.

"-I'm also poisonous."

At the mention of poison, Pyrrha's eyes widened and she started to struggle for a few moments before she punched Mimicker in the eye, making him drop her as he howled in pain. She then leapt backwards until she was back with her friends.

"We need to take him down...fast." Pyrrha said before she started to feel woozy and started to sway back and forth.

"Pyrrha? Are you alright?" Jaune asked.

"I...I." Pyrrha stuttered, her vision starting to feel blurry and she started to feel fatigued.

'What...What's happing to me? Why can't I feel my face?' Pyrrha mentally asked herself before she realized something. 'Is this his poison doing this to me? Oh Oum I think I'm going to be-' Pyrrha's thoughts were interrupted as she hunched over and threw up everything in her stomach. She then dropped to her knees before she fell over sideways and lost consciousness.

"PYRRHA!" Jaune yelled as he and Akeiro rushed to her side, examining teenage huntress-in-training closely. "Wake up Pyrrha, please wake up!" Jaune cried as he shook her. It was at that point that Akeiro noticed the scratch mark on her cheek and cursed.

"Damn it! She's been poisoned!" Akiero told Jaune. "Get her out of here and get her treated before she dies! I'll distract sushi brain!"

Jaune eyes widens in horror. "Crud!" Jaune exclaims as he wrapped her arm around his shoulder and drags her away as Nora did the same to Sydney. Akeiro took out his Taser Staff as Ren approached his side, ready to fight the alien poacher alongside him. They silently shared a looked for a brief moment before they faced their enemy and charged at him with a battle cry.

While this was happening Carzon was examining the twins with worry evident in his eye.

"Are you two alright? Is anything broken?" Carzon inquired with a scared tone, hoping that they weren't fatally injured.

Militia smiled at his concerned before wincing and groaning in pain. "I'm fine darling, but I think my legs might be broken." Militia told him.

"I feel...light headed." Melanie said from a few feet away.

Carzon hummed in thought. "I think I might be able to help you too, just give me-" Whatever he was about to say was drowned out by the screams of Ren as he flew past them and smashed into a trashcan with a loud and painful sounding impact. The red eyed Xylite quickly looks at the now unconscious Ren before turning to see what was happening in the fight. His eye went wide as he saw Akeiro helplessly suspended in the air by Mimicker's four tentacles, each one wrapping around his wrists and ankles, stopping the Xylite from being able to escape.

The octopus based alien then started to pull at Akeiro's limbs in an attempt to tear them clean off. Militia and Melanie looked away while Carzon looked on with dread filling him.

"NO! STOP PLEASE!" Carzon begged of Mimicker.

Mimicker's response was to slowly turn his towards Carzon and gave him a long stare as he started to pull harder, causing Akeiro to scream while the sound of his arms giving way to the pressure was heard.

Carzon dread slowly started to dissipate as rage started to boil in his very being.

"LET HIM GO!" Carzon yelled angrily, his voice sounding a bit deeper than normal. His yelling fell on deaf ears as Mimicker continued to pull at Akeiro's limbs, chuckling all the while.

"I SAID STOP IT!" Carzon repeated with his voice becoming steadily more deeper as his body started to change. Militia and Melanie watched in stunned silence as his form started to become more muscular to the point that his already damaged jacket was torn apart.

Militia blushed as she looked at his form until she noticed that a silver bushy tail with blue highlights was growing at the base of his spine until it stopped growing when it reached four feet in length. His legs became longer and stilt-like while his feet became padded and grew claws. Just like his legs and feet, his arms grew slightly longer and clawed. His eye shrank a few inches, making room for a muzzle to grow from the bottom of his face. Finally, two pointed silver ears with blue tips grew on top of his head, completing the transformation.

The Malachite twins looked on in terror as, for a brief moment; they imagined a Beowolf in place of the wolf like creature Carzon had become.

The feral looking Carzon tilted his head upwards and let out a ear-piercing howl, causing everyone still in the room to hold their ears in pain. Everyone stared at Carzon with uncertainty, not sure what's going on. Akeiro weakly turned to look at his brother, only for his pupil to shrink when he saw the form his brother took while Mimicker looked at Carzon with mild confusion, momentarily halting his torture of Akerio.

"What in Splurmth's name is that?" Mimicker wondered with intrigue.

The moment those words were uttered by the galactic poacher; Carzon lowered himself onto all fours and charged at the cephalopod mollusc like alien at full speed like a rapid wolf. Mimicker had no time to react before Carzon was upon him, using his right claw to gouge out the tentacles that was holding the red jacket wearing alien up. Mimicker yelled in pain as he dropped Akeiro, who ended up skidding across the floor and stopping a few feet from the twins, and attempted to swat the savage creature away from him with his arm.

But his attempts were for naught as Carzon bit down on his wrist and started to shake it like a mad dog, tearing into the poacher's arm effortlessly as Mimicker renewed his screams of pain and terror.

After several moments of continuous shaking, Carzon gave the appendage a final, hard yank and ripped Mimicker's arm off. Before the alien poacher could screech in pain, Carzon grabbed his octopus shaped head with his talon like fingers and started to bash it repeatedly into the ground, creating a small crater that grew larger each time his head met the floor.

The twins could only stare at the brutal beat down with horrified expressions as Akeiro managed to pick himself up and turn to stare at the battle and hissed.

"This isn't good, not even slightly." Akeiro said, getting the attention of the twins.

"What's going on? Why did Carzon turn into a Beowolf of all things?" Militia asked the red jacket wearing Xylite with concern.

"Yeah, and why is he attacking Squid Boy like that? He doesn't seem the type to do something like this." Melanie asked.

"You're right; Carzon normally isn't capable of doing something like this." Akeiro told her. "But that all changed three months ago when he tried to protect a wolf cub from a poacher and failed. Despite everything he tried, the poacher managed to get a shot at the cub and killed it." Militia and Melanie gasped in shock and sadness. "Some of its blood splashed on him, turning him into that thing over there and lost control of his actions. By the time we found them...the poacher was already dead." Akeiro told them.

The twins looked down sadly, finding the reason for Carzon's initial transformation very tragic.

"So...what did Carzon do to the poacher?" Melanie couldn't help but inquire. Akeiro went very still, internally debating whether or not to tell them.

"It...wasn't a pretty sight." Akeiro explained. "Carzon, he...tore off his limbs, gouged out his eyes, and ripped out his intestines. The look that was frozen on his face before he died showed nothing but pain and agony."

The twins were shocked to hear all this, especially Militia who didn't want to believe that the person she fell in love with was capable of such heinous actions.

After a few more face slams, Carzon lifted Mimicker high off the ground and slammed him one more time with all his might, forming a crater the size of the poacher's body upon impact. Knowing that he won, the feral Carzon lifts his head up and howl in victory, making the trio wince at the sheer volume of the howl. As fast as the howling started, it suddenly stopped as Carzon went rigid as he slowly returned to his senses.

His arms limply hung on his sides as he looked around the room and gazed at the damage until he saw Mimickers detached arm laying a few feet away. His eye widened as he looked downwards, seeing the mangled body of Mimicker as he twitched and bled in a crater. Shakily, he raised his arms and he saw the goo that made up the alien poacher's blood.

Piecing together what he had done, he craned his neck towards his friends and saw the horrified looks that the twins were shooting at him and the sad look his brother was giving him. Carzon zeroed on to Militia's face. He felt his heart dropped at the fact that she looked so afraid of him and he knew that it was his fault.

Carzon took a step forward but stops when Militia flinched and scooted away. The Xylite allowed his body to droop and he lowered his eyes until he was looking at the floor, feeling empty inside as his body slowly turned back to normal.

"Carzon..." Militia managed to whisper, though Carzon was able to hear it from so far away as clear as rain.

"I'm sorry...I'm so, so sorry." Carzon dropped to his knees, not taking his eyes off the floor.

"You...shouldn't feel bad for trying to protect your brother Carzon." Ren said, grunting as he carefully raised himself up and shambles towards the group, his aura managing to repair some of the damage.

"He's right you know." Akeiro stated. "If it was you that was getting your limbs stretched instead of me, I would have come and saved you even if it meant losing control."

Despite the encouragement, Carzon still felt down. "I know you would Akeiro, but I don't want to be violent. Even now, what I did to him is tearing me apart inside." Carzon told them.

Militia's eyes soften as she saw how broken up Carzon was about all this. 'I can't believe that I even doubted him for a moment, the Carzon I know wouldn't hurt me on purpose.' Militia thought in shame as she attempted to move, only to hiss when pain to shot up her legs. '...If only my legs weren't so busted up, I would give him a big hug.'

Carzon, who heard her distress, rushed to her side. "Is it your legs? Are they still hurt?" Carzon asked in concern.

"Yeah...I think they might be broken." Militia said, smiling reassuringly. "But don't worry; my aura should help me recover from it.

Carzon wasn't sure what aura was, but that didn't stop him from thinking over his options.

"I don't know what that is, but I might be able to fix your legs faster." Carzon told her. "Do you trust me?"

Militia gave him a small smile and opened her mouth to answer, only for Melanie to narrow her eyes. "Don't trust him Militia." Melanie interjected. ""He'll just end up mutilating you like he did that the yellow blob of an alien over there."

Carzon looked uncomfortable at her distrust. "I know that I wasn't in the right mind when I did that, but you have to believe me, I would never hurt-"

"I trust you Carzon." Militia told them, deciding to interrupt before they got into an argument.

"What?! Sis, you saw what he can do, why would you-"

"Because I love him." Militia interrupted Melanie.

Melanie stared in befuddlement, too shocked that her sister would trust him to say anything.

Carzon eye smiled in gratitude. "Thank you." Carzon places his hands on Militia's legs, his hands giving off a blue glow that slowly began to spread over damaged limbs. After several seconds, the blue glow died down and Carzon stands up.

"Alright, that should be it." Carzon told her. "Now try to stand up."

Militia nodded and slowly pushed herself up, stunned that she didn't feel any pain in her legs. "My legs! They feel amazing!" Militia said in surprise, testing her legs by bending her knees a few times. "It's like they were never broken."

Ren and Melanie were equally shocked as her. "How is possible?" Ren asked.

"It's cool isn't it?" Akeiro questioned them. "It's an ability that Carzon here picked up sometime after we crashed here. He's able to heal organic materials with no negative effects except for Carzon getting tired, basically negating any injuries like they never existed."

"That's amazing!" Melanie admitted, starting to see that she was somewhat wrong about the red eyed alien.

Militia smiled brightly, glad that she had Carzon with them when she needed him. "Thank you Carzon, you really came through for me." Militia said gratefully.

"I'm just glad that I was able to help you." Carzon told her. Carzon and Militia stared into each other's eye until Ren had an idea.

"Hold on, do you think that you'll be able to cure Pyrrha with your powers?" Ren asked hopefully.

"Heh...heh...heh, I doubt it." Mimicker wheezed weakly, coughing up yellow goop and groaning in pain a he slowly propped himself up with his remaining arm. The group were beyond shocked that he was still alive.

"How? How in hell are you still alive after that going through the ringer like that?!" Akeiro demanded.

Mimicker laughed again, causing him to go into another coughing fit. "That doesn't matter now, while I'm alive at this very moment, my time in this universe is rapidly nearing its end." Mimicker told them, knowing that he will be dead soon. "But I can take solace in the fact that I'm taking someone precious to you all with me."

"You're wrong." Ren said sternly. "We're going to save her before anything bad happens to her!"

If anything, Ren's determination that Pyrrha was going to be okay amused Mimicker greatly. "Such foolish idealistic hope, even if you manage to save her from death's icy grip, there's no guaranty that she'll come out of this unscathed."

Mimicker's strength left him and he fell back to the ground. "Before I go, there is something that I want to say to the Xylites." Mimicker said, shakily craning his neck to look directly at Carzon and Akeiro. "While you managed to defeat me, your kind had a lot of enemies. All of whom would eagerly take my place. You two will never know peace until the end of your days."

Satisfied that he said his peace, Mimicker eyes dimmed as his life finally ended.

The group watched as Mimicker's body started to melt into yellow goo.

"...We should find Pyrrha before it's too late." Militia suggested. After getting no arguments, the group of five promptly left the room and headed towards the exit as the goo started to evaporate.

It didn't take them long to find the others because the second they stepped through the front entrance, Nora, Jaune, and Sydney could be seen crouching down around Pyrrha, whose head was on Jaune's lap while Sydney did all she could do for her. One more look around told the five that the others attracted the morning crowd, all of them showing interest and concern.

"SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE! I'M LOSING HER!" Sydney yelled towards the crowd, more than a few quickly fumbled around with their phones and quickly called the emergency services.

Once she declared that, the group of five quickly ran over with urgency. They were shocked and horrified to see that Pyrrha skin was pasty white and covered in cold sweat. The skin around the scratch Mimicker left on her cheek was blue and the scratch itself was oozing a blue liquid.

"What's happening to her?!" Ren asked them.

"It's the scratch, it's getting worse and...and." Jaune began, unable to finish what he was about to say.

"And she's going into shock, if we don't do anything soon, she will die." Sydney told them before staring at Carzon. "Carzon, do you think that you can help her?"

Carzon nodded and crouched down to where the cut was on her cheek was and placed his hand on it, shutting his eye in concentration as his hand glowed blue. To the others amazement and slight disgust, the blue liquid that was slowly dripping from the wound started to pour out faster, making a puddle under them. Once the well ran dry, the skin started to mend themselves back together and leaving a thin scar before Carzon collapsed.

"CARZON!" The group of cried out, Militia being the most vocal of the bunch.

"It's...alright, I'm just exhausted after everything that's happened today." Carzon assured them before looking at the scar on Pyrrha's cheek. "It looks like I wasn't able to completely heal that scratch though.

"It's...alright." Pyrrha suddenly said with a weak voice, surprising everyone.

"Pyrrha! Are you okay?" Jaune asked her, immediately doting on her like a mother hen.

Pyrrha "Yeah, I'm fine...but what happened to Mimicker?" Pyrrha asked them.

"That yellow bastard is no more, we took care of him." Akeiro told her.

The red haired warrior smiled as she felt her eye lids getting heavier and heavier. "That's...good to...hear." After that, Pyrrha's eyes dilated and her breathing became irregular.

"Pyrrha? What's wrong?" Jaune asked, not getting an answer. "Pyrrha? PYRRHA!"

"This isn't good, it looks like she's going into shock!" Sydney stated, checking her pulse and felt that her pulse was getting weaker and speeding up. Luckily for them, the ambulance arrived on the scene and two paramedics came over with a stretcher and lifted her up on it before taking her to the ambulance.

Jaune was the one that went with them while the others decided to rendezvous with them at the hospital. They were all so caught up in what happening with Pyrrha, they didn't notice a man watching them from the crowd with a stony expression. The man turned and walked away, not bothering to look back as he disappeared into the crowd without a trace.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 10: End of a Partnership

A few hours after Pyrrha was poisoned by Mimicker and then cured by Carzon; the group of eight was standing around Pyrrha's hospital bed. Her normal battle attire was switched out with a light green hospital gown. On either side of her was an IV and life support system, both of which were hooked up to her. The group silently stared at the sleeping form of Pyrrha with a mixture of disbelieve and sorrow.

A few moments before hand, a doctor gave them both good news and bad news. The good news was that Pyrrha was going to survive, all because of Carzon, although the medical staff didn't know that fact. The bad news, however, was that the shock to her system caused by the venom wrecking havoc on her body and she slip into a coma. The worse part of that news was that the doctor didn't know how long she'll be in it. After giving them his condolences and promising that the hospital would do everything in their power to help her, the doctor left to give them some privacy.

The remaining members of Team JNPR were devastatingly crushed by the news, especially Jaune who was trying to hold himself together but looked close to breaking down. And despite only knowing her for less than a day, Sydney, Akeiro, and Carzon shared the same pain as the team. Even the twins felt dreadful for Pyrrha and bowed their heads respectably at the comatose warrior.

Carzon bowed his head in shame.

"This is our fault." Carzon said with a sob.

Ren was the first jump to his defense. "Don't say that, if it wasn't for you she wouldn't be alive right now."

"But if we weren't here, you lot wouldn't have been in danger and she wouldn't be like this." Akeiro argued fiercely. "If we didn't have almost every crazy lunatic in the galaxy gunning after us, then none of you wouldn't have been at risk!"

Jaune stared at them with a frown. "Look, no one could blame you two for this, it's not you guy's fault that bad guys are after you two."

"But despite that, every time one of them shows up, innocent people end up getting stuck in the crossfire." Carzon retorted. "That's why we think it's time."

"Time? Time for what?" Sydney asked.

"Time for me and Carzon to hit the road by ourselves." Akeiro's answered.

Everyone stared at them, stunned by their decision.

"What do you mean?!" Sydney asked in disbelieve.

"What I'm saying is that me and Carzon need to travel solo for now on." Akeiro explained, much to Sydney's displeasure and shock.

"But...you two barely know where to go and how to act in public!" Sydney pointed out. "It's not safe for either of you to go out by yourselves."

Carzon lower his gaze until he was looking at the floor. "It's true, neither of us knows anything about the geography of this world or the customs of humans, and we might get caught by the government sooner other than later." Carzon looked back up at Sydney with a solemn look in his eye. "We appreciate everything you've done for us these last few months, but if doing this means that no one will go down with us, then so be it."

"And let's face it; we knew that this day was going to happen eventually." Akeiro said with a shrug.

Sydney silently gaped at them, unable to find any words to say to the alien twins that made her life interesting for half a year.

Militia felt pity for Carzon, knowing that this decision couldn't have been easy for either of them to make. She was so deep in thought, wishing that there was something she could do, that she almost didn't feel the tapping on her shoulder. Quickly turning around, Militia saw that it was Jaune, with a small smile, which was tapping her shoulder.

"What is it?" Militia irritated asked him, more than a bit peeved that he interrupted her thoughts. If he noticed her irritation, he didn't show it as Ren and Nora watched the two.

"Listen, we want to say thank you for helping us out there today. We really appreciate it." Jaune told her and Melanie.

"If you didn't come when you did, Mimicker would have killed us all and taken both Carzon and Akeiro with him." Ren added.

"Yeah!" Nora cheered. "Since you saved our bacon, which makes us best friends forever!"

The Malachite twins could only stare at them, Militia with a blank look and Melanie with annoyance.

"Friends? Like we would ever be friends with a bunch a dweebs." Melanie said cruelly, making Nora's expression sink.

"Then why help us at all?" Ren asked them with a frown.

"We just wanted to save Carzon and kill that bastard before anything happened to my darling. The fact that you guys ended up being helped by us was pure coincidence." Militia explained with a stern expression.

"And the only reason I was there was because a certain SOMEONE decided to literally drag me out of bed." Melanie quickly added, showing that she didn't really care whether or not Carzon was safe.

Militia rolled her eyes. "Will you shut up about-" Just then, Militia's legs weakly wobbled and the red dressed Malachite twin fell forward, the adrenaline from before finally leaving her and sapping what little strength she had left. Out of reflex, Carzon caught her and held her in her arms, giving her a worried look.

"Are you alright Militia?" Carzon asked her, making sure he had a strong enough grip on her so she doesn't slip off him and end up spilling onto the floor. Militia smiled at his concern for her safety.

"I'll be alright; I didn't get any sleep last night. That's all." Militia told him.

"What do you mean, 'didn't get any sleep last night?'" Melanie demanded. "What were you doing last nigh-"

The twin of Militia stopped when she realized something. "You didn't come back last night, did you?" Melanie's eyes narrowed in suspicion as she examined her sister.

Militia looked ashamed as she nodded. "No, I didn't get back until morning. That's when I saw Mimicker leaving the building." Militia admitted.

Melanie's glare intensified as her body language that showed her aggravation.

"You idiot!" Melanie hissed at Militia. "Don't you realize how important sleep is, especially right before we go into a dangerous situation like today? If Mimicker wasn't preoccupied and went after us first, you might've been killed because you decided to stay up all night and was doing Oum knows what in town!"

At this point, Militia looked very ashamed and close to breaking down. Seeing her like this, Carzon decided to play mediator before anything gets out of hand. "Please stop yelling at her. I know that she made a bad decision by going into a fight like this, but getting angry at her now won't solve anything." Carzon said as he tried to calm her down. In response. Melanie rounded on him and sneered.

"You stay the hell out of this Tin Can!" Melanie growled angrily. "This is as much your fault as it is hers, if she didn't get the pitiful notion that you and her can be anything together, then she wouldn't have but herself in harm's way just to save your metal ass!" Melanie stomped up to him and leveled her finger to his eye. "So do both me and Miltia a favor, and stay away from my sister you red eyed piece of-" Melanie yelped when Akeiro gripped her wrist and yanked her to him, his blue eye glaring into her green eyes.

"Don't...you...dare finish that sentence." Akeiro said threateningly. Everyone held their breath as the two glared into each other's eye(s). Melanie clicked her teeth and yanked her arm out of the Xylite's iron grip and headed towards the door.

"Let's go Militia, we need to get back before the others get suspicious." Melanie told her sister, who followed behind. Melanie stopped right before the door and motioned her sister through the door. Once Militia was out, the white dress wearing Malachite twin threw a sideways glance towards the two brothers.

"If you two are going to leave, then make it quick. And remember...stay away from my sister." After she said her piece, Melanie walked out of the room and went to find her sister.

Team JNPR and Sydney stared at the door way while Carzon was shifting from sad disbelieve to shooting disapproving looks at Akeiro, upset that Akeiro grabbed Melanie like that.

"Well." Jaune finally commented, cutting through the deafening silence. "That escalated quickly."

All the conscious people in the room turned their attention to Jaune, giving him blank looks that clearly said 'Now was not the time for that commented.

"What?" Jaune asked in confusion.

-The Tartarus Club, at the same time-

Roman stared blankly at the small TV in the hidden office of the club, watching the local news as it reported what happened at the Fun Town Amusement Park during noon. The news report began with the reporter talking about how the Aquarium's food court was found destroyed by what looked like a large wild animal and some explosions.

"Heh, looks like someone had fun today." Roman said with a relaxed chuckle as he leaned back on his chair and kicks his feet up on the desk. His good mood would soon be dashed by what the reporter says next.

"On the scene, police has found what looks like a metallic based one piece suit lying within one of the craters. Currently, the authorities don't know what to make of it, but they assured us that they'll get to the bottom of this."

During the report, a picture of the suit in question was shown on screen. It barely took a second for Roman to recognize the odd piece of clothing and knew who it belonged to. The crime boss sighed and rubbed his face.

"And like every other imbecile that I recruit on this shit world, Mimicker failed." Roman said, too used to these failures to be angry. "Can't say that I didn't see this coming. Its days like these that I wish we could have brought the White Fang with us or I had Neo by my side. Even though the White Fang is filled with filthy animals in clothing, at least they could get the job done most of the time...until Red and her damned team started to interfere that is. And Neo...she is the best partner I ever had." Roman reminisced fondly, remembering how much easier things were back home compared to Earth before scowling.

"But now I have to deal with useless hacks who has these amazing abilities but are too stupid to kill a bunch of kids. Now that I think of it, this whole damn world is full of useless people in general!" Roman quickly stood up and kicked the chair that he was sitting on to the side of the room in frustration. "And in the name of Monty, I'm sick of this damn place! I swear that the next person that disturbs me is going to get shoot!" Roman declared in rage.

As if on cue, Junior opens the door and looks around frantically.

"Is everything alright in here?!"" Junior asked worriedly. "I thought I heard something crashing and-" Junior was interrupted by Roman lifting up his can and aiming it at Junior's head, a cold glare in the orange haired man's eyes and he fingered the trigger.

"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Junior said frantically as he back away from the barrel of the cane gun with his hand up. "The hell are you doing?! I'm on your side!"

"Are you now?" Roman asked coolly. "Or perhaps you're actually Mimicker who's crawling back to me like a worm after failing to do a simple task just like the others nimrods of this world."

Junior started to sweat. "I swear to Oum I'm not him Roman!" Junior cried out, his heart racing as he looked down the gun barrel.

Roman glared at Junior as he considered whether or not to believe the man in front of him. After a few moments he lowered his cane, much to Junior's relieve.

"Very well, I'll believe you...for now at least." Roman told Junior as the bearded bartender tried to lower his heart rate back to normal. "Since you're obviously up here for something, what do you want?"

Junior immediately straightened up. "I was wandering if you've seen Militia or Melanie at all today?"

Roman rolled his eyes. "No Junior, I haven't seen those two since last night." Roman answered. "Why are you bothering me about your employees?"

"It's just that I haven't seen them all day. I looked everywhere for them." Junior explained.

Roman hummed as he shifted through the information that Junior just told him. "Hmm...while that is indeed odd, I'm not their babysitter so it's not really my problem." Roman informed Junior, much to his dismay. Just then, both Roman and Junior felt like they were being watched.

"Oh but Roman, I do believe that it IS your problem." A voice said echoed all around them, making it difficult to locate the source. Junior and Roman tensed as they looked around the room for whoever was talking but with no luck.

"Who said that?! Show yourself!" Junior demanded.

"Whoever I am is not important right now, nor is it time to show myself to you two." The voice stated. "But what is important is that your group is a victim to betrayal." This statement shocked the two criminals.

"Betrayed! By who?!" Roman asked, already feeling a headache brewing deep within his mind.

"The one's that has shown their true colors are the two female twins in your employ." The voice answered.

"WHAT?!" Junior yelled in rage at the stranger's audacity to even suggest that his two top bodyguards would do something as heinous as betray them out of the blue.

"It's as I told you little Junior, the Malachite twins as aligned themselves with your enemies and had a hand in Mimicker's demise." The voice echoed.

The hidden person's words hung over the Remnant born criminals like a poisonous miasma, threatening to choke them with its presence. True to his earlier feeling, Roman felt a fierce pounding in his head.

"Alright, "Mr. Mysterious." Roman said with an edge to his tone "If we decided to humor you and willing to believe that out "dear" Militia and Melanie are traitors, what prove do you have to back up your claim?"

For several seconds, the mysterious man's voice didn't answer, making both Roman and Junior think that the man was lying to them. Then, from out of nowhere, an envelope fell from the ceiling and landed right in front of Roman. The two criminal's heads snapped upwards to find where it was dropped from, but found nothing. Roman then looked at the envelope with suspicion and tentatively grabbed it and held it to the lights to check for traps.

What he saw was silhouettes of what he assumes were photos. Roman lowered the envelope until it was level to his chest.

'Well, here goes nothing.' Roman thought before he reluctantly opened the envelope and quickly flipped it upside down then gave it a shake, letting the photos drop to the desk. One look at what the photos held made Roman's blood boil. The photos showed the images of Melanie and Militia helping Team JNPR and the Aliens from different angles, one even showing Carzon healing Pyrrha.

'Why those treacherous little harlots!' Roman said with an ugly sneer, making Junior worried as he approached the pictures, gasping in horror when they showed that the voice was right about them.

"No...this can't be. Not them." Junior said in anguish, feeling despair at the turn of events.

"I'm afraid that it is true." The voice rang with a small hint of sympathy.

Junior despair quickly into rage as he roar and thrust his fist into the pictures, shattering the desk and almost hitting Roman with wooden shrapnel.

"Alright then, I think you've made your point." Roman said to the stranger as Junior breathed heavily, his face turning red. "And since we're all buddies now, how about telling us who the hell you are?"

"I am but a man." The voice told them vaguely. "And now that all I had to say had been said, I shall leave you to be. But before I go, I shall leave you my card."

A second after he said that, a card fell onto Roman's lap. "If you have any need for me, you have my number.

Roman picked up the card and examined it. True to his word, the card had a phone number written on it. But the thing that interested Roman more was the fact that there was a pitch black cross with a skull over top of it.

"What tacky design you have here." Roman said out loud, trying to get a rise out of the hidden man. To his dismay, the man didn't reply at all. "Must have already left." Roman surmised. By this time, Junior managed to calm down slightly, but still felt some lingering rage.

"So what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Junior growled. "Not only are we now two people short, and were now even more outnumbers, but those two bitches might have told those brats where we are!"

Roman hummed in thought. "Your right, we are in a bit of a pickle now." Roman admitted. "So we might have to get out of here before they come after our heads, with just the two of us verses all of them, I'm not quite satisfied with our chances."

Junior threw his arms up and cursed worse then a sailor, looking like he wanted to punch something else until he had a thought.

"Hold on, wasn't that Nikos brat injured in the photos that man brought us?" Junior asked Roman.

"Yes, one of the only good things any of the idiots did for us. What of it?" Roman asked impatiently, not in the mood to discuss useless information they already knew.

"If she's in the hospital, wouldn't her team want to stick by her side for now?" Junior continued his line of questions. "So they wouldn't be able to attack us for now."

Roman took a moment to mull around Junior's words in his head, smirking after a moment. "I do believe your right, and obviously the traitor wouldn't want to blow their cover and would no doubt try to return to us." At this point, Junior had a matching smirk on his face.

"And they wouldn't have any idea that we knew that they helped our enemies." Junior stated. "Which means that we can ambush them when they walk through the door."

Unable to help himself, Roman chuckled darkly. "Junior, we might be able to salvage this yet." Roman told him, the both of them starting to plan their attack on the twins.

On the streets of Detroit, the Malachite twins were making their way towards the Tartarus Club and were in the middle of discussing a cover story to give to Roman and Junior as to why they were gone for so long. The sun was starting to dip towards the west horizon.

"Okay, so we should just tell them that we went grocery shopping and they'll most likely believe it." Melanie told her sister her ideal cover up story.

Militia simply rolled her eyes, unimpressed by the story. "Oh yes, because they'll definitely that we went to the grocery store when we have no bags of food with us." Militia said sarcastically, poking holes in Melanie's tale.

"Well I don't see you coming up with anything!" Melanie snapped at her red clothed sister.

"I could have come up with a something a bit more believable then that!" Militia argued.

They were so preoccupied with their argument, that they almost didn't realize that they made it back to the club until they past it. Shaking their head to get clear their minds, they head towards the door and noticed that it was wide open.

'Something...doesn't feel right.' Melanie thought to herself as she and Militia carefully walked through the doorway to the dimly-lit bar. Before they could question why it was so dark in there, they heard the front door slam shut. They turn around to see that Junior was next to the door, the little bit of light in the room casting a shadow over Junior's face.

"Oh Junior, it's just you." Militia said in relief. Junior walked towards them slowly, the lit slowly showing his stern glare.

"Oh crap!" Militia said nervously under her breath.

"Let me handle this." Melanie whispered to her sister. "So you're probably wandering what we were doing out for so long. You see what happened was-"

"Save it." Junior said in a low growl reaching into his pocket and pulling out several photos. "Don't think that we wouldn't find out what you traitors did!" The information broker tossed the photos at their feet. The twins looked down and were shocked to see that the pictures showed them working alone side Team JNPR, Carzon and Akeiro, and Sydney.

"But...how?" Melanie asked, wondering how they were found out so easily.

"That's actually a funny story." Roman said from the top of the stairs with a croaked smile, blocking the only other way out of the room. "I was contemplating how useless everyone on this world was when I saw that Mimicker had lost on the news when Junior here came into my office, asking if I say you two. When I told him no, some man that was somehow able to hide in my office told us you two had betrayed us." Junior twitched angrily at the memory.

"Of course we were skeptical at first, what possible prove did he have for his seemingly outrageous allegations?" Roman asked rhetorically, spreading his arms wide. "When we asked him for said prove, he drops those photos in front of me from nowhere and low and behold, here we are now."

"And you two have no idea how pissed I am and how much I want to make you pay with your lives!" Junior growled, grabbing his bazooka club from the wall and held it lazily to his side.

The twins knew they were in a sticky situation and that they needed to proceed with caution to hopefully get out of it.

"Hold on, we can explain what went down." Melanie said in desperation, knowing that they weren't in any shape to take Junior and Roman down. "Just listen and-"

"ENOUGH!" Junior yelled, gripping his weapon hard. "Our partnership is OVER! Consider your contracts terminated...with extreme prejudice."

"Any ideas?" Militia whispered worriedly, afraid that this could possibly be the end of them.

"I'm working on it." Melanie whispered back, racking her brain for a way out of here. They were running out of seconds as Junior, staring coldly at them with his gray eyes, raises his club over head.

"When you see that creepy octopus son-of-a-bitch in Hell, tell him that Hei Xiong said hello." Junior told them before swinging his club downwards.

Thinking fast, Melanie pushes Militia away and sidesteps the blunt weapon, which missed her by an inch and smashed into the floor, shattering the tiles underneath. Without a hint of hesitation, Melanie brought down her bladed heel onto Junior's club hand, the blade completely going through his hand and anchored itself into the tile flooring, forcing the larger man to his knees. Junior's howl of pain sounded like a pleasant melody to her ears

"YOU BITCH!" Junior roared/cried out. Before he could attempt to get her off his hand, she spun around on her anchored bladed heel, electing another howl of pain as said heel drilled a hole through his hand, and used her free heel blade to slice Junior's throat.

Junior's eyes widened, gripping his throat desperately as Melanie leapt off his hand and picked up Militia, giving her former employer a blank stare.

"Consider this our resignation." Melanie coldly told him. Hei "Junior" Xiong, longtime club owner and leader or his criminal organization, dropped to the ground in front of the twins as single tear dropping from his eye after he drew his final pain filled breath. "And tell that squid bastard that the Malachite twins send their regards." Melanie finished, a puddle of blood starting to pool around Junior's head.

As the twins stared at the body of their former boss, momentarily forgetting that they weren't alone while Roman also stared at Junior's body with an unreadable expression.

'And with that, the last competent person under my employ is gone.' Roman thought in irritation, swinging his cane around before leaning it over his shoulder.

"Well look at what you've done now." Roman said loudly enough to remind the Malachite twins that he was still there and still a threat. "Now it looks like our group of four dropped to one."

Melanie glared with into Roman's eyes. "Are you going to try your luck with us now?" Melanie demanded. "If you do, I won't hesitate to end you like I did Junior."

Roman smiled cockily and aimed the end of his cane at them, the bottom opening and the scope flipping up.

"I would like to see you try." Roman taunted them.

The twins and Roman quietly stared each other off, body's tense as they waited for the other to make the first move.

'This isn't good.' Melanie thought in worry. 'I can't fight and worry about Militia at the same time, not in her condition. Plus neither of us have a ranged weapon, so charging at him would be suicide.' Militia spared a worried glance at her sister from the corner of her eye, her thoughts similar to her sisters. Melanie noticed her sister's worried look and offered her a small smile that told Militia that she's got this. The white dress then glares back at Roman and breaths hard through her nose.

'I guess that there's only one thing to do.' Melanie thought as she prepared to execute her plan, by strengthening her grip on her sister and making a mad dash towards that door.

Seeing his chance to end them, Roman took a few shots at them while their backs were turned towards him. To the bowler hat wearing criminal's dismay, all his shots missed by a few mere inches, some hitting the wall, and floor while one stray shot almost hit Junior's body. With an annoyed grunt, Roman leapt off the stairs and started to pursue them as they made it through the door.

Once outside, the twins dashed towards a random direction as fast as their legs could take them, more worried about getting away from the area then where they were going. By the time Roman made it outside, the twins were gone without a trace. It became very evident to Roman as he twisted his head around in a desperate attempt to find them, unable to find hide or hair of them.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit, DAMNIT!" Roman cursed in frustration. "HOW COULD THEY HAVE GOTTEN AWAY SO EASILY!?" Roman seethed for a few moments before collecting his cool. "No doubt that they'll go to their new friends and lead them right to me...looks like I need to fly, fast."

Roman reached into his pocket and fished out a small, solid black cellphone. The instant it was in his hand, he went through his speed dial list and selected the name of the person he desperately needed to talk to at the moment. Roman tapped his feet on the asphalt for what felt like an eternity.

"This is Diavolo, who is this?" Diavolo answered three seconds after Roman dialed him.

"This is Roman, I need to talk to-" Roman started with urgency in his tone.

"Are you in a secure area?" Diavolo interrupted Roman mid-sentence.

"Well no, I'm right outside the Tartarus club." Roman said through gridded teeth with as much patience he could muster so he didn't snap at Diavolo.

"Go back inside before we say anything else." Diavolo instructed. Roman rolled his eyes but does so anyway, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible. The crime boss went through the door of the club and walked over Junior's corpse and continued walking until he was in the middle of the large room.

"Alright, I'm inside the club now." Roman told Vincenzo's main driver.

"Good, now what do you need?" Diavolo asked.

"Some shit went down and I need somewhere to hide." Roman explained. "Were is your boss now?"

Roman's eyes twitched when he heard Diavolo aggravated sigh. "What did you do?" The driver asked in a exasperated tone. The bowler hat wearing man resisted the urge to yell obscenities at man for the implication.

"First off, it wasn't my fault; it was those traitorous Malachite whores. Secondly, they escaped before we could silence them and managed to take Junior out." Roman explained, the stress of everything that happened starting to make him testy. "And now they're most likely on their way to tell their new buddies where I am!"

"I see, interesting." was Diavolo's reply, filing that information for later. "While I am glad you told us that as soon as you could, Mr. Acerbi is currently in a meeting and can't talk right this second. You'll have to call him la-"

Roman raised an eye in confusion when Diavolo's stopped abruptly and the sound of someone jerking the phone out if his hand.

"What is it?" Vincenzo asked rudely.

"Oh good you're here." Roman stated, feeling glad for the first time since before he and Junior learned of the twin's betrayal. "Listen, I need help getting away from here, the twins-"

"Don't bother explaining Roman." Vincenzo interrupted. "I already know what happened over there and I'm going to have Diavolo pick you up and bring you somewhere safe."

Roman felt relieve flowing through him. "That's a relief, but how did you find out about what happened?" Roman couldn't help but asked with curiosity.

"It doesn't matter how I know, I have my ways." Vincenzo said with an edge to his tone. "And don't bother asking Diavolo about it, he won't say a thing about it. Am I clear?"

Roman felt a twinge of the same fear he felt every time Cinder would make a off handed threat towards him. "I read you loud and very clear." Roman said, knowing not to push his luck.

"Good, and before I get off of here, I wanted to let you know that I'll be out of town for a very important meeting with a very beneficial friend." The Italian crime boss explained, though the way he said friend suggested that the so called friend was a nice way of saying, "Someone that is too important enough now to kill." "So if you get into trouble, I won't be able to pull you're skinny ass out of the fire."

"Alright, I understand." Roman stated. "Though I must ask, who are you meeting with?"

"That's none of your business Roman." Vincenzo said with a threatening tone. "Remember; don't screw up while I'm gone." With that Vincenzo hung up, leaving a confused Roman to wonder what that was about.

Throughout all this a man wearing a jacket that was on a building overlooking the club went unnoticed, said man's jacket billowing in the wind. The watcher had been hiding in the shadow of the building and looking down at the bar since he initially made contact with Roman and Junior and told them about the twin's acts of betrayal. He had watched as Melanie and Militia ran out of the building and ran down a random street, followed by Roman ten seconds later. The man couldn't help but feel amusement as the Remnant born criminal grew frustrated at losing trace of the two young ladies and pulled out a cell phone, dialing an unknown party.

"That's not what I expected to happen when I told them about the twins." The mysterious figure told himself a hint of amusement leaving his lips as Roman walked back into the club while talking to someone on the phone, presumably to get more privacy as he spoke. "But my main objective has been fulfilled; soon Torchwick will undoubtedly call for my aid. And once that happens, and those meddlesome teens and the Xylite are out of the way, I will be able to seek you out and we can final finish what we started...Edward."

The man pulls out a photo of Edward Charles holding Violet without her hat on, both of them were smiling. He examines the photo for several moments, focusing his attention at Edward's happy face before he pocketed it and walks away, ready to set off the next part of his plan.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 11: Revelation

It was in a slightly dirty alleyway where Melanie and Militia found themselves after 30 minutes of continuous running. Exhausted and certain that they were safely away from Roman's vengeful hands, the twins decided to stop and take a breather. Melanie walked over to a cleaner part of the alleyway wall and gently leaned Militia on it, who slid down it until her butt touched the ground, too tired to care if her clothes got dirty. Following her example, Melanie sat next to her, sighing in relieve now that she was resting her tired feet.

"Thank Oum we were able to loss him so easily." Melanie stated. "I don't think he chased us far, I didn't see any hint of him behind us."

"Yeah, small miracles huh?" Militia exhaustedly said, her head swaying and her eyes feeling heavy. Despite this, the red themed girl looked at her sister with a worried expression. "So what do we do now?"

Melanie closed her eyes, her mind quickly going any potential option they had. "I...don't know." Melanie admitted. "But I'm sure that we'll figure something out." To emphasize her point, she gave her sister a reassuring smile. Militia, however, looked down at her feet with an uneasy frown, hugging her legs to her chest.

"Well whatever we figure out, we need to do it soon. With Junior dead, and Roman undoubtedly going to continue to come after us for what we did, we can't afford to take too long figuring anything out or we might end up died." Militia explained, her frown deepening and hugging her legs as close to her as she could. "And what about if we end up surviving all this and get back home? The guys at the club will want to know why Junior didn't come back with us. What do we tell them? That the two second-in-command killed the boss? I'm sure that they'll get a kick out of that."

Melanie frowned and looked at her own feet, knowing that her sister is right in both regards. She takes a deep breath and looks back at her sister with a small smile. "We should cross those bridges when they come up, but for now we should focus on resting while we still can." Melanie said caringly. "Why don't you lean on me and shut your eyes for a few minutes? I'll make sure to wake you in about ten minutes so we can get out of this dingy little alley."

Militia says and does nothing for a few seconds, staring blankly at her feet until she gives a small nod and leans over and places her head-on Melanie's shoulder. By the time her tired head touched Melanie's appendage, Militia was out like a light.

Despite everything that's happened and the troubles they are going to face, Melanie smiled as Militia's sleeping face as she wrapped her arm around her sister and pulled her closer to her body to keep her warm. The smile was short lived as Melanie frowned, Militia's words played through her mind. They were up Shit Creak without a paddle and it's going to be a uphill battle to stay afloat. There will be a lot of tribulations in their future, all because Militia had to fall in love with a machine of all things. The thought made her crumble about annoying sisters before she looked over at her sister again, having to stop herself from chuckling when she saw a long line of drool running down Militia's mouth.

'Heh, what am I getting annoyed at her for? I wouldn't trade her for anything for her.' Melanie told herself. They might be up Shit Creak, but if they stay together, they will power through anything. The thought went into a screeching halt as Melanie cringed, feeling the drool starting to run down her arm. 'Eeeeeeeeewww!'

After ten minutes, Melanie decided that they had enough time to recharge and shook her sister awake, who groggily sat up straight.

"Nooooooo, that's my ice cream! Get you own, you asshole." Militia said sleepily, clearly still half-asleep.

"Wake up sis, we need to keep moving." Melanie told her, stifling her chuckle as she quickly wiped off the drool off her arm and stood up. She reached her hand towards Militia, offering to pull her up. Militia, still in a daze, accepts it and allowed her sister to pick her up. Seeing that she wasn't fully awake, Melanie took Militia's arm and draped it over her shoulder, more than willing to help carry her a little bit further until she woke up.

They made their way towards the other side of the alleyway in silence until Melanie decided to break the silence.

"Hey sis?" Melanie called to her sister.

"Yeah?" The other Malachite answered.

"I was thinking of ways to get out of this mess we're in and I think that I have a solution." Melanie told her.

Militia's eyes brightened. "Really? What is it?" Militia asked eagerly. The white Malachite twin took a deep breath.

"I was thinking about it and…I think we should go find the brats, I mean Team JNPR and the robot aliens and ask them to help." Melanie explained, feeling like she had just drank a cup of muddy water with a tablespoon of salt mixed in.

For her part, Militia stared at her sister with her mouth fully open and looking at her like she just grew another head that started saying none sense.

"What?!" Militia shockingly asked. "But what about what you sai-"

"I know what I said!" Melanie sharply interrupted her, the angriest pouty face she could muster firmly on her face. "And I stand by what I said about not being friends with them." Melanie expression softens. "But if it means that we both can be save, even for a little while, then I'll swallow my pride and ask them to help us. I'll even apologize to that toaster butt of a boyfriend of yours if I have too."

For the longest time, Miltia stared at her sister's face, surprised that she would refer to Carzon as her boyfriend despite what her sister said about their relationship at the hospital. Then she smiled softly.

"Melanie…thanks." Militia thanked her sister. The whit dressed Malachite simply gave her sister a look before facing forwards, saying nothing as she continued forward, a small smile on her own face.

The rest of the walk was uneventful and continued until they were nearing the end until noticed a shadow stretching towards them. They followed the shadow until they found the owner, their eyes widening as they realized who it was that was waiting at the mouth of the alleyway.

"It's you!" Melanie said tensely, looking startled and hints of fear in her eyes.

"Agent-A." Melanie whispered.

Sure enough it was Agent-A, garbed in his signature outfit, staring the twins in the eyes as they stare into his, the twins visibly tensing while he seemed calm.

Back at the hospital, the remaining members of Team JNPR were getting ready to say their goodbyes to Pyrrha before they left the hospital to return to the hotel to get some rest after the stressful day. By this time Sydney and the twins had already left, opting to leave shortly after Militia and Melanie did. When the trio had left, Jaune, Nora, and Ren could sense the tension between the other trio as they silently exited the room.

The remaining three teens sat around Pyrrha's bed silently, lost in their torrent of grief for their friend and comrade.

"We...should go." Ren suddenly said, slowly rising from his seat near the left foot of the bed. "Visiting hours is almost over; we won't be able to stay too much longer."

Jaune sighed as he too rose from his seat from Pyrrha's right side. "You're right; we should go and get rested up." Jaune said before glancing at Pyrrha, making sure to commit every detail of her to memory as if this will be the last time they'll ever see her. "We can only hope that she'll pull through and return to us."

The normally energetic Nora was hunched over in her seat, not replying to anything they said as the two slowly trekked towards the door. Before she followed the boys' example, Nora placed a handmade card she made with a piece of paper that one of the nurses gave her earlier when she asked for one and a pencil that Sydney lent her. On the cover of the card, was a doodle of the entire team holding hand with smiles on their faces. Written inside was a message that said 'Get well soon so we can kick evil butt again' with Jaune's, Ren's, Nora's, Akeiro's, Carzon's, and Sydney's signatures underneath it.

Once she was satisfied that it wouldn't fall over, Nora looked at Pyrrha's peaceful looking face with a forlorn expression. She gingerly took the comatose girl's hand into her own and squeezed it gently.

"Please...come back to us." Nora silently begged her, getting teary eyed as she returned the hand to its owner and walked towards her awaiting teammates, making sure to wipe away the tears before they noticed and get concerned. The trio then left the room and headed downstairs towards the exit, feeling as if they were leaving behind a piece of their very soul behind.

It didn't take them long to find their way to the exit, their bodies on autopilot as they silently stumbled out of the front door of the hospital. They were so wrapped up in the silence between them, that they almost jumped out of their skin when Jaune's pocket started to vibrate, the buzzing knocking them out of their stupor.

"What in Monty's name is that?" Ren asked, looking around before zeroing onto Jaune's vibrating pocket.

"Oh right, I forgot I had that." Jaune said embarrassingly at forgetting about the thing in his pocket, reaching into his pocket. It was a thin, pitch black touch screen phone that had an gray eye engraved on the back.

"Ooooh, what's that?!" Nora asked, momentarily forgetting the previous state she was in at the sight of the shiny phone.

"And more importantly where did you get it?" Ren asked with a raised eye.

"Oh, Ed gave it to me yesterday after we left his place so we can call him, he called it an Eye-Phone." Jaune explained. "And since it vibrated, maybe he texted us." Sure enough, the moment Jaune woke up the phone from sleep mode, an icon saying that Edward Charles has left a message. Jaune tapped the icon and brought up the message, his face showing shock as he read it.

"What is it Jaune?" Nora asked their leader.

"He said that we need to get to his house right away, something important just came up." Jaune said urgently, his eyes shining like a flame.

"Really? What is it?" Ren asked. The moment the question left his lips, Jaune looked up with the largest excited grin on his face.

"He knows where Roman is!" Jaune responded, Nora and Ren visibly straighten up at the news.

"Are you serious? Are you sure that's what the message said?" Ren asked, hoping that this wasn't a hoax.

"Yeah, that's what the message said." Jaune replied.

"Great!" Nora chirped, before she glared sharply. "Now let's go find out where that son of a bitch is so we make him pay for all the trouble he's caused us…with interest." To emphasize her point, she made a fist and slammed it into her open palm.

Jaune and Ren stared at the young ginger with gaping mouths, never seeing her like this before. Ren was especially surprised because he knew her for years and she never said anything with so much malice ever. Nora noticed their staring and looked confused.

"What?" Nora questioned them, not sure what they were staring at her for.

"...Are you okay Nora?" Jaune asked with concern in his voice. "Because I've never seen you like this before."

Nora stared at him for a moment until her eyes widen in realization. "I-I'm sorry." Nora apologized. "I think the stress of everything is starting to get to me."

Ren looked at her with pity and wrapped her in a hug, which she leaned into. "It's alright Nora, let's go hear what Ed has to say and then I can make you a big stack of pancakes." Ren offered, breaking the hug. Nora looked up and nodded, her normal smile back on her face.

"Okey dokey Ren!" Nora said in excitement before she took off running towards Ed's place at high speed.

"N-Nora! WAIT!" Jaune and Ren yelled before they gave chase, struggling to keep up with her.

What would have taken the trio forty minutes to get to Ed's house only took them 30 minutes thanks to Nora's speed and stamina. By the time the got there, Nora was only slightly winded while Jaune and Ren looked like they were going to keel over any moment, both of them on their knees and sucking in as much air for their aching lungs.

Nora was humming a merry tune as she strolled up to Ed's door and knocked loudly. A few seconds later the door opened and Edward Charles poked his head out and smiled when he saw them.

"Good, you three are here." Ed said as he opened the door wider. "Please come in, we have a lot to talk about and I've already started making our plan of action." They accepted his invitation and made their way inside his house.

"It's great to see you again Ed." Ren greeted. "But before we begin, can I ask what's going on? How did you find Roman?" Ren proceeded to ask. In response, Ed pointed his thumb towards the living room.

"Why don't you ask our newest allies?" Ed told them. Team JNR looked at him with raised eyes.

"Newest allies?" Jaune asked as he and the others walked toward the living room. Their level of surprise shot through the roof when they saw Militia sprawled on the couch, fast asleep, while Melanie sat next to her, the scowl on her face suggested that she was not in favor of the current situation.

The second that Melanie noticed their presence in the room, her scowl deepened.

"Great, you three finally showed up." Melanie said with complete distain, shaking the trio from their state of disbelieve.

"What are you two doing here? How did you get here? When did you two get here?!" Was Jaune's string off questions he shot out of his mouth in rapid succession.

"I can tell you the answers to those." Ed said, walking into the room with a tray with five drinks, having gone to get them after directing the three teens to the living room. "And to answer them in order, they are our allies now as I said beforehand, I brought them here, and a few hours ago when I picked them up from an alleyway." As he answered those questions, he gave each of them a glass of lemonade, placing one on a table by Militia who was still fast asleep despite the noises.

"Alright that answers those questions, but the main question here is why are they our allies now? They didn't seem to keen on the idea of even being our friends, much less allies." Ren asked, taking a sip of the lemonade and enjoying the sweetness of it. "They flat out told us that they didn't really care about us, what changed?" Militia looked away and stared at the wall quietly, not willing to look them in the eye.

"It's because they were willing to tell me where Roman was hiding the whole time." Ed explained for her. The team almost spat the lemonade that they had in their mouths at hearing that, but managed to swallow painfully to avoid gaining Edward Charles's wrath.

"That's right! They were working with Junior and must have known where Roman was!" Nora managed to yell out before the others did. Melanie quickly glared at Nora and tilted her head towards her sleeping sister, making the red head giggle with embarrassment.

"Sorry." Nora apologized in a whisper. "So anyway, with everything that happened today, we forgot to ask you two about it."

At hearing about the mistake they unknowingly made, Jaune and Ren face palmed at their mishap.

"It wouldn't have mattered anyway." Ed told them grimly.

"Huh? Why not?" Jaune asked.

"Because apparently, some asshole decided to tell Roman and Junior that we helped you lot." Melanie said harshly. "And by the time we got back to the club, they were ready to ambush us. With the condition we were in, we were lucky we were able to get out of there with our lives." Melanie's expression darkened. "We ended up having to fight Junior to get out of there and I ended up killing him in the struggle."

Everyone except Ed, who already heard the story, looked at the long haired young women in shock, surprised and horrified that she had to kill someone they thought she was close to.

"I...would have never imagined that either of you would be capable of taking out your boss like that." Ren remarked carefully.

Melanie looked away with an unreadable expression on her face. "Neither did I." Melanie said, her body language showing how drained she was after the incident. "But they didn't really give us a choice in the matter, it was him or us, and it's obvious what I went with."

Team JNR were awkwardly quiet after she told them this, feeling uncomfortable with the subject.

"So...where were you guys and Roman hiding anyway?" Jaune shattered the silence and clear the now heavy atmosphere.

"The Tartarus Club." Militia said with a groan from where she laid. The others quickly turned their attention towards the previously sleepy Malachite twin as she swung her legs off her sister's lap and over the edge of the couch and sat up. There were bags under her eyes and she looked like she was about to pass out again. "That's where we were hold up at."

"Sister?! You should lay back down and rest up." Melanie said sternly as she reached over to lower Militia back down, only for her to gently grasp Melanie's hand to pushed it away with a head shake.

"No, this is more important right now." Militia stated. "I can rest afterwards." Melanie looked like she wanted to argue, only to nod and retract her hand.

"Um, I hate to interrupt." Nora interjected. "But what's the Tartarus club?"

"The Tartarus Club is a despicable haven for thugs and villainy, owned by Vincenzo Acerbi himself." Ed answered with a scowl.

"Wait, you know about them?" Jaune wondered aloud.

"Yes, it's just one of the many locations where he conducts his shady dealings with other criminal scum. This place in particular is one of the few places that he's willing to meet with the highest profile contacts. In fact, there were only two individuals that he ever met within that club." Edward explained.

"Who are they?" Ren prodded for answers. "Maybe they can lead us to Vincenzo and Roman."

Ed shook his head. "Not going to work Ren." The black-haired man said. "One of them just showed up out of nowhere about a year ago, and managed to gain Vincenzo's respect in almost no time, which is no easy feat to accomplish, especially in such a short amount of time. And as embarrassing as it is to say, I was unable to get much information about him." The sour look on his face showed that this wasn't something he was proud of. "And the other...isn't someone that you should actively look for." Ed frowned deeply. "Besides, we have no way to locate him."

"What's this? Someone that you, the cold-hearted vigilante, don't want to mess with?" Melanie said in sarcastic disbelief.

Ed could help but chuckle. "Believe me 'squirt', this man doesn't have a shred of humanity in his body. He's a merciless monster that won't hesitate to hunt you down like a beast hunting for its next meal and will make you suffer for a long time until he decides to kill you." The seriousness in his tone made them all shiver in realization that he was dead serious.

"Besides, Vincenzo already had Roman moved to a new location." Ed told them. "So knowing the location where he was hiding is useless to us now." The collective stomachs of Team JNR dropped at the news. Just when they hoped that they were getting closer to their goal, the rug was pulled from under them.

"Does that mean that we have to start our search for him all over again?" Nora asked weakly, despair settling in her. To that, Ed smiled.

"Not exactly." Ed stated.

"What do you mean?!" Jaune said excitedly, hope returning to him.

"What I mean was that in their haste to get Roman out of there, they weren't able to cover their tracks fast enough and I managed to find out where they took him." The older man explained.

"Don't leave us hanging no! Tell us!" Nora demanded, starting to vibrate with excitement.

"Where did he run off to?" Miltia asked, feeling curious herself.

Ed fixed his gaze at all the youths in the room as he uttered the words they wanted desperately to hear. "Villa di Il Male, the home of the Red Devil of crime himself."

Meanwhile, several miles from the city limits, a red limousine was cruising towards a large Roman style manor on a hill, passing a two-story building and a huge hedge maze on the way.

"So this is where your boss lives." Roman said as he sat comfortably at the backseat of the red limo, stretching over the red velvet seats and sighed in contentment. "He certainly has good tastes."

"Indeed he does. Despite moving to America from Italy, Mr. Acerbi wanted to have something to remind him of his home country, so he had this manor built using Italian architecture," Diavolo replied from the driver's seat, keeping his eyes on the road as they stopped in front of the manor. "Here we are, Villa di Il Male."

Roman looked through the black tinted windows, seeing the Roman style manor the Vincenzo called his home. The first floor was a series of stone pillars on top of stone tiles. Roman could see dozens of men in similar uniforms as Diavolo.

'Must be the guards.' Roman assumed as he continued to examine the manor.

On top of the pillars were the second and third floor of the building. The walls were made from white bricks and what Roman could see, the roof had wood paneling that was red in color. Roman blinked when he noticed that men with sniper rifles were on the roof.

"I wouldn't mind retiring to a place like this." Roman commented. "Any chance that Vincenzo would be willing to put this place up for sale?"

"Not a chance." Diavolo said with an edge to his voice. "And I'm only going to warn you once, if you try to pull anything while you are here, my master will end you without hesitation, unless of course I end up being the one to get to you first."

Roman rolled his eyes, not the least bit intimated by his threat, instead smirking at how easily Vincenzo's driver was riled up by his comment.

"Loyal to your master, are you?" Roman asked rhetorically, his amusement coating his words.

"Yes, you could say that." Was Diavolo's reply as he parked the car in front of the Villa and got out. The driver opened Roman's passenger door and the Remnant born criminal quickly grabbed (which one was it?)'s head and climbed out of the car.

"Come with me." Diavolo ordered Roman. He obliged with the order and followed him as the driver lead them through the pillared first floor, passing multiple guards by until they entered the courtyard in the center of the complex.

Roman blinked at when he suddenly found himself in an open area filled with rose bushes.

'Is Vincenzo a crime boss or a florist?!' Roman pondered, feeling like he was drowning in an ocean of red roses. Roman suddenly noticed something big and out of place in the rose bushes.

The out of place object was a statue located in the center of the courtyard, and looked like it was sculpted from marble. The statue itself depicted a giant of a man bound to a boulder with chains in a way that didn't allow him to move from the spot. What interested Roman the most about the statue was the large hawk that was ripping a piece of flesh from the man's body. The master thief gazed at the face of the giant and saw the perfectly chiseled look of pain on his face as he was being eaten alive by the predatory bird.

'This art piece looks exquisite and expensive.' Roman thought, every instinct that he developed over the years being a thief screaming at him to 'liberate' the statue and sell it for a large profit. Without knowing it, his hand reached for the statue

Increasing his pace to avoid temptation, Roman continued to follow Diavolo through the courtyard and through more pillars until they reached a rectangular building attached to the back of the villa. Diavolo opened a door to reveal a set of stairs.

"These stairs leads up to the second floor." Diavolo explained to Roman. "From there we must go through the second floor to get to the third, where you shall be staying throughout your duration of your stay."

Roman shrugged. "Easy enough to understand." Roman responded.

Without another word, the duo went up the steps until they reached a metal door. Roman expected to see a lavishly decorated room when Diavolo opened the door. What he got, much to his confusion, was a long, barren corridor it's half circle pillars every few feet. Vincenzo's driver and bodyguard noticed his confused expression and decided to clear things up.

"The main household and living area are located on the third floor." Diavolo explained.

"If everything is on the third floor, then what's the point of this one?" Roman inquired. Diavolo's face twisted into a demented smile.

"You'll see soon enough." The driver answered vaguely with a knowing smile as they started to walk down the corridor. Roman wanted to comment but decided that it wasn't worth the time to do so. After half a minute of walking, they turned a corner and saw that the corridor still went on.

They reached the end of this hallway, only to find that there was another right turn.

'How long is this hallway?!' Roman wondered as they walked the third hallway, His eyes starting to hurt from looking at the bland hall. After several moments, they finally made it to a metal door guarded by two bulky men with equally massive flamethrowers on their backs. They two sentries took a moment to nod towards Diavolo in greeting before letting the two through and resuming their guard duties. They went through the door and up the stairs.

"So...you lot have two flamethrowers inside the building? Excuse my ignorance, but would using them in here catch the house on fire?" Roman couldn't help but question.

"Yes, it would burn the house down if they were stationed on the first of third floor." Diavolo admitted. "But the second floor is made from fireproof material that encases the entire second floor, that's why there wasn't anything on that floor, if we had anything down there, it would all end up burning away eventually."

Roman nodded at that interesting fact, but said nothing else.

It didn't take them long to ascend the stair until they reached the third and final floor. Diavolo opened the door and revealed what Roman was waiting to see, a lavishly decorated hallway with a stone tiled floor with a beautiful red carpet running through the center of the floor, paintings of various locations and people and framed photographs of Vincenzo with different people. Spread throughout the hallway was stands with vases, pots, and more framed photos.

'This is more like it.' Roman grinned, eyeing up the various decorations with interest.

After turning a corner, Diavolo stops in front of a large metal door with a licking wheel and a number pad. To Roman, it looked like a vault where rich people would keep their most precious possessions.

"What...is this exactly?" Roman asked with an uncertain glance, unsure why they stopped in front of this door such as this.

"This, my friend, is where you'll be staying for most of your stay." Diavolo explained.

Roman gave a look. "Wait, you're going to stick me in a vault? Why?! How would that help me?!" Roman asked in an incredulous tone.

The driver shook his head. "It's not what you think, this containment cell is the one we use to hold superhumans while Master Vincenzo decides what to do with them." Diavolo made clear for the bowler hat wearing criminal.

Roman gave the man a hard, calculating look. "And see you sure that it will keep me safe?" Roman asked, making sure that the cell will be good enough to protect him from his enemies before he goes along with this idea.

"I assure you, the room has three layers of reinforced, hardened steel with a metal door that is just as reinforced. No one will be getting out, or in this case, get in to get you." Diavolo described the cell.

Roman continued to stare at Diavolo's face, trying to see any deception in his face. He eventually sighed when he saw nothing.

"Alright fine, I'll go into the cell." Roman finally folded.

"But if someone managed to get to me, I'll make my displeasure clear to you." After giving Vincenzo's minion his warning, Roman walked past Diavolo and walked into the reinforced vault. Diavolo kept a neutral expression as he closed the behind Roman, silently fuming as he engaged the locking mechanisms.

'If someone manages to get in there and you survive the encounter, I'll gag and tie you up and toss you headfirst back in that vault.' Diavolo thought sourly as he clenched his fist.

'If you end up being a waste of our resources, then I hope I get the pleasure of ending your miserable existence, there has been more than a few ideas that I've been thinking up to end loose ends such as yourself.'

The minion walked away, smiling at the thought of possible torture methods he could use on Roman.

"And who knows, if anyone actually manages to get close to the vault, they might be able to entertain me for a little while." Diavolo said to himself as he went to fulfil his other duties.

-Edward's House-

All the occupants of the house, except for Violet who was tucked into bed earlier by her father, were still in the living room. Ed was standing in front of a dry erase board that he brought down from his office. Attached to the board were photos taken of Vincenzo's property. One of the pictures was of the manor itself, taken from an angle so the opening for the courtyard could be seen.

"This right here is Vincenzo's Manor, Villa Di il Male or the Villa of Evil." Ed opened the discussion with, pointing at the photo with a pointer stick. "As you can see, the manor itself is a Roman style villa with a courtyard squarely in the middle."

Ed points the stick in the opening that could be seen in the photo. "The first floor is open and has three layers of pillars supporting the structure, one that goes all around the outside, middle, and inside the open square structure."

Ed stopped when he noticed that Jaune's hand was raised.

"Question Jaune?" Ed questioned the young blonde man.

"Yeah, why was the floor designed that way?" Jaune asked, not getting the appeal of the architectural choice.

"Ah." Ed said in understanding. "Well Jaune, there is actually multiple reasons for that. The first being that the design originated from Italy, where Vincenzo grew up before moving to America and he most likely wanted something to remind him of his home country." Ed explained, getting nods from the others.

"That makes sense." Jaune said, happy at getting an answer.

"The other reason would be because the floor is more open, it would be easier for the guardsmen to spot anyone who makes it that far into the compound and gun them down." Ed continued, listing the practical use of the design choice.

"Oh...that isn't good, especially for us." Jaune said with dread, since they were about to attempt a break in to get to Roman, the open area will make it easier for them to get spotted before they could get far into the building.

"Your right, it will make it significantly more difficult to apprehend Torchwick." Ed admitted, a grim look on his head. "But even if the first floor wasn't so open, it would still be difficult to get around all the guards."

"So how are we going to get through them?" Ren asked. "It's only six of us against a small army, we might be strong and skilled but we're not invincible, and while we haven't used that much of our ammunition, we only have a limited quantity with us. "

Nora and Jaune knew this to be true as the team's only packed enough dust ammunition that they thought that they needed, and since they all thought that the mission wouldn't take too long they had less then they needed right now.

Ed nodded in agreement. "Yes, that is something we need to be careful about." Ed responded to Ren's worry. "Which is why we're going to go over our plan of attack which will hopefully not result in casualties on our side. Any questions or concerns before we begin?"

Seeing his chance, Jaune cleared his throat. "Yes, I do have something to say." Jaune stated. "I just want to make sure that you're still going to keep your promise on not kill anyone while we're working together."

Miltia and Melanie looked between the team and Ed in confusion, not knowing the pact that they made together and the stipulations that the Beacon Academy team forced onto Ed. Ren gave Jaune a nod while Nora looked at Jaune in worry, wondering why their leader would bring it up.

The vigilante grunted. "I'm not the kind of man who goes behind his word so easily." The dark-haired man replied.

"You swear?" The serious look on Jaune's face told Ed that he wasn't going to let this go that easily. Rolling his eyes, Ed lift his right index and middle finger up.

"I swear on my honor that I will not kill another living soul as long as I'm partnered up with your group." Ed vowed, mentally thinking that this whole thing was ridiculous. Luckily for him, this seemed to satisfy Jaune.

"Happy now?" Ed asked Jaune with a deadpan expression.

"Yes." Jaune responded, sounding pleased as a big, goofy smile etched itself onto his face.

"Right, moving on with our plan of attack, from the layout of the manor, there is a staircase that's located at the back of the building. So Ren, Jaune, and myself will sneak in and take out the guards stationed inside, meanwhile Nora distracts the ground forces and the snipers on the roof." Ed looks towards Nora. "Are you up for this?"

In response, Nora grinned and saluted him.

"Can do sir!" Nora chirped.

Ed smiled and saluted back.

"What about us?" Melanie asked impatiently. The others turned to face Melanie, who had her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.

"You two will be staying here." Ed firmly told them. "I don't want my daughter to be alone will all of this is going down."

Melanie gave him a furious look and leapt to her feet. "Oh, hell no! I'm not going to sit around while you all go after Roman! Once everything calms down, he'll come after us and he will not stop until we're dead. This is as much our fight as it is to you guys."

"I know where your coming from." Jaune started, trying to calm her down. "But I think that you two shouldn't come, if someone comes here while we're gone, no one will be there to look after Violet. Besides, your sister isn't in any condition to do this." To empathize his point, he points at Miltia, who was just about to nod off before she shakes herself awake.

"That's why she's staying here and look after Lucy while I go help you lot." Melanie pointed out.

"It's Violet." Ed corrected her, a scathing look pointed at her.

"It doesn't matter! What does matter is that I need to be there to make sure that Roman is dealt with, for Militia's sake and my own." Melanie argued her case. Team JNR looked from Melanie and Ed Charles, the former looking tense and mentally daring him to say no while the former was giving her a contemplative expression.

"Well Ed, you're the one here who is experienced enough to led this mission, what's your call?" Ren asked him. The vigilante didn't answer immediately, spending a few more moments to calculating the pros and cons befre he finally reached his decision.

"I say that she comes along." Ed finally decided. "She can prove beneficial to the mission given the fact that she and her sister have been working with Roman and could give us insight on how he thinks and fight."

Melanie felt relieved and the tension in the room vanished.

"Thank you! I won't let you down!" Melanie told him as she spun around to see her sister's face, only to see that she was fast asleep, no doubt having fallen asleep during her conversation with Ed.

"Now that that's settled, what's next?" Jaune asked the older man, only for him to head towards a wall and tabs it. A panel slides out and reveals his crime fighting outfit. Ed quickly switched the shirt he was wearing with his signature shirt with the red A. With haste, he slides on his black coat and placed his hat on his head before pulling his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on.

"It's simple really, we prepare for a war." Ed answered Jaune's question at last.

Within moments, everyone sprang into action and prepping their weapons for the upcoming battle. Melanie was sharpening her heels with a sharpening stone, humming a happy tune as she imagined impaling Roman's face with the sharp point. She stopped sharpening the heel and felt the blade, smirking in satisfaction as the heel was as sharp as she wanted it.

Jaune and Ren were both cleaning their respective weapons, Ren made sure to also count how many bullets he currently had on him. Nora was doing the same as he teammates until Violet, having been woken up by the noise, walked downstairs and was almost immediately noticed by Nora. Needlessly to say, the young Valkyrie got excited and rushed towards Violet to smother her with affection. The young cat girl tensed and then ran away, causing a ten-minute game of Cat & Mouse to ensure that ended with Ed grabbing Nora by the arm and threatening to toss her off the roof if she didn't stop terrorizing his daughter. Currently Nora was examining her weapon while grumbling about grouchy old men.

After getting Nora the calm down, Agent-A made preparations of his own; packing his signature handgun and a tranquilizer gun with plenty of ammunition along with a dozen flash grenades to stun the guards.

Once they were suited up and well-armed, The group met up by the front door, the vigilante standing in front of them as they watched him.

"Alright, before we leave, I want to make something very clear." Agent-A started, pausing to make sure they were paying attention. Once he could confirm that they were, he continued. "This will most likely be one of, if not, the biggest fight that any of you will experience. I will not sugarcoat this and say that we will all make it out of this in one piece or at all, but if you're all alert to your surroundings, keep calm, and follow my instructions to the smallest detail...we might be able to get out of this with our life and limbs. If you're not then...I can't guarantee that everyone will make it out alive."

The group nodded solemnly, knowing that he was right and one slip could cost them dearly.

"Right then, do all of you have your ear pieces in place?" Agent-A asked them.

"I do!" Nora cheered, tapping small device that was in her ear canal.

"It's secure." Ren assured him.

"Yeah." Melanie said.

"I think I pushed it in too deep." Jaune told him, the ear piece making the inside of his ear feel uncomfortable.

"Right, let's move out!" Agent-A barked. The vigilante turned and marched out the door with the others following close behind, all of them determined to find Roman Torchwick and recover the piece of the scale so they can be closer to getting home.

They just hoped that they'll live long enough to see their home again.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 12 Hell Unleashed Part 1

After hours of walking, the group of five finally arrived at the crime lord's dwellings, stationing themselves on a hill right outside the property line. Agent-A was crouching down and scanning the area with the help of the binocular function in his sunglasses while the others were staring in awe of the sheer magnitude of the building.

"This place is bigger than I could have imagined!" Jaune whispered to the others.

"I would have imagined with how massive Vincenzo supposedly is, he would need a bigger house, but this is ridiculous!" Ren whispered back.

"I bet Roman was sweating it really bad when he got here." Melanie snickers, imagining Roman trying to stealing something expensive only to be tackled by the guards.

"Hmm, looks like there are only four snipers on duty right now." Agent-A cut through their conversation as he lowered his binoculars "And lucky for us it seems that Gonzalo Alcantar isn't one of them"

"Gonzalo Alcantar? Who's that?" Nora ran over and poked the vigilante for answers.

"Gonzalo Alcantar, also known as the Colombian Death Shooter, is an elite sniper from the South American country of Colombia. He's known as one of the best snipers in the world and held his position for almost fifty years." The masked vigilante answered.

"Wow, he must be getting up there in years by this point." Jaune pointed out.

"Yes, but his skills haven't diminished a bit over the many decades he's been in his profession." Agent-A warned them. "During those years, he had fought in a civil war, killed countless political leaders, and hundreds of soldiers."

Melanie huffed in annoyance. "The history lesson is good and all, but what does this have to do with us and this mission?"

"Because a few years ago, Vincenzo hired Gonzalo as a member of his four-person elite team and as a trainer for his snipers."

"You mentioned that there are four elites under Vincenzo's employ, does that mean that we'll have to get through them before we get to Roman?" Ren asked.

"I'm going to be frank with you, the probability of fighting most, if not all of them is high." Agent-A told him. "However, we might be able to avoid confrontation with Gonzalo if we're able to sneak in without tripping the-" The vigilante stops and went stiff when he noticed something was off with Melanie. Namely the red dot that was trained on the side of her neck.

"SHIT! DUCK AND COVER!" Agent-A yelled as he lunged at the young women and tackled her to the ground just as the sound of a sniper shot rang through the night air, the truck of the tree towards the Malachite side exploding into a shower of bark chunks and splinters.

"Where did that come from!? I thought we were hidden enough not to get spotted!" Jaune yelled towards the others from behind a tree he had his back leaning on.

"I don't know! It didn't sound like it came from the house!" Ren yelled back. "It sounded like it came from somewhere from the left!"

Agent-A wracked his brain to figure out where to the left the shot could have originated from until it dawned on him.

"It came from the guard's living quarters!" Agent-A figured out. "Whoever shot at us is shooting us from there!"

Over by the barracks, an aging man was on the roof on his stomach and overlooking the area the heroes were previously standing moments before through the scope of his sniper rifle. He was wearing the same black tuxedo as the other guards except for the hat, which revealed his mostly white hair with a few black strands showing his original hair color, and an old faded grey vest that he was wearing over his black too. The vest had multiple small holes with dried up blood stains cracked around the holes from old injuries he's sustained over years of intense battles.

This man was Gonzalo Alcantar, the Death Shooter of Colombia.

"Hmm, fast reflexes." Gonzalo remarks, not letting his sights off the objects that the group of six dived behind. "It was a good thing that I saw them when I did or they could've made it closer to the house.

Meanwhile, the group continued hiding behind the rocks and trees as they analyzed the situation in the hopes of salvaging the mission.

What are we going to do now?" Ren asked the masked vigilante. "We're pinned over here and it won't be long before the guards arrived to investigate the shots."

Agent-A quickly went over plans in his head before deciding on the best one. "All right, I'll draw his fire to me while you four get to the house." Agent-A told them.

Nora held up her finger to get his attention. "What's stopping the sniper guy from going after us?" Nora asked, worried that Gonzalo won't take the bait and take one of them out before they get anywhere near the building.

"Because he will more likely see me as a threat than any of you, given my line of work that isn't a surprise." He assured her. 'Plus, it's like none of you exist, with no information about your team at all, so he wouldn't know if any of you are a threat or not.' Agent-A quickly thought to himself.

"Are you going to all right here by yourself?" Jaune asked worriedly.

In response, the vigilante smirked and pulled out a sniper rifle.

"Don't worry about me, I've gone through worst situations then this. Trust me." Agent-A told him. "And before you ask, this is a special tranquilizer rifle, so I won't be able to kill him." Jaune still looked worried but nodded.

"Good, in the count of three, we book it." Agent-A told them. "One...two...THREE!"

In a flash, team JNR and Melanie dashed towards the villa. Upon seeing the teens leaving their cover, Gonzalo aimed his sights on Melanie until hear a gun shot and tilted his head slight to the left to narrowly miss the bullet that was aimed at his head, the bullet grazing his cheek and giving him a small scratch the started to bleed.

Gonzalo looked towards where the shot came from to see Agent-A aiming at him.

"So, you want to fight one against one, do you? Very well, I'll make this quick." The Colombian sniper rose to the challenge, training his sights on his challenger.

While the epic fight between two skilled snipers was commencing, the group from Remnant were nearing the entrance to the three-story structure.

"We're almost in!" Jaune excitedly called out to the others. "We just might make it without being spotted!"

As soon as the young Arc said that, one of the snipers spotted the approaching intruders.

"INTRUDERS INBOUND FROM THE NORTH!" The male sniper shouted, alerting his three fellow marksmen and all nearby guards in the immediate vicinity.

"Aw geez!" Jaune groaned as the four snipers and a handful of guards started to shoot at them, forcing them to cease their mad dash to dodge the incoming volley of bullets.

"You just had to jinx us, didn't you?!" Melanie growled in frustration, dodging and weaving through the bullets and cursing her lack of a long-range weapon.

Ren was shooting back when he could while Jaune used his shield to cover both him and Ren.

"We can't hold them off forever!" Ren exclaimed as more guards started heading towards them from the building. "We'll get swarmed at this Jaune knew he was right and had an idea.

"Nora! Get those snipers off our backs!" The blonde ordered.

Nora, who was flipping over the bullets, smiled, and saluted. "Aye aye Captain!" Nora said before taking out her hammer out and shifting it into a grenade launcher and aimed it at the middle of the sniper team and fired. This ended up working as they had hoped as the grenade exploded and tossed all four of them into the air.

One of them was sent careening off the side of the roof and into the bush, getting tangled in the branches as his consciousness faded. The second one was blown backwards into the courtyard and landed on his arm, breaking it along with his leg. The third on ended up landing on some of the ground troops, incapacitated them all. The fourth, and most unlucky of them all and sent tumbling towards the ground and rolled for several seconds, stopping right at Nora's feet.

The poor sod was conscious enough to see the young Valkyrie grinning down at him. But to him, she might as well have been the devil himself that was looking down at him. The grin would no doubt haunt every moment of his life. Not missing a chance, Nora shifted her weapon pack into a hammer and held it like a golf club.

"FORE!" Nora shouted with glee as she winded herself up and swung it at his side. For a moment, time seemed to slow for the sniper as the hammer came closer and closer. In this span of time, a single thought popped into his head.

'I regret every decision I've ever made.' Was his last thought before the hammer slammed into his side, sending him flying yet again, his screams filling the air as he flew over the house and towards the horizon.

"Nice shot." Jaune complimented with a whistle, admiring the distance that the guardsman was sent flying.

"Thanks, Jaune." Nora beamed at Jaune approval of her handiwork.

"Stop flirting you two!" Melanie snapped at the duo, getting unison of "We're not flirting!" For the duo in question and a small chuckle from Ren. "We still have these bozos to deal with before we can get inside!" They all of course knew that she was referring to the remaining guards that were still standing there, looking around at the carnage that Nora has wrought on their comrades in shock.

However, their dazed state was short lived as they all took out batons and charged at them. The quartet charged right at them, more than willing to meet the challenge.

Jaune was the first one to make contact with the approach enemies, raising his shield to blocks strike from the left and using his sword to block another strike from the right. The two minions of Vincenzo pushed into Jaune's defense, hoping to overpower him with their combined strength. What they didn't expect was for the younger combatant to kick the guard blocking his sword in the shin, causing the guard to yelp in pain before Jaune kicked him to the ground.

With his sword hand free, the blonde swung at the other guard. The guard bend backwards to dodge the blade, distracting him long enough for Jaune to swing his shield towards the guard's face. Not seeing the shield until the very last moment, the guard was unable to protect his face from the shield, which slammed into his face with a crunch. The guard went limp and fell to the ground, his nose broken and missing a few teeth.

Jaune briefly wondered if he killed the man until the downed guardsman started to twitch and groaned.

'Well that's good.' Jaune breathed in relief, unaware that the other guard he was fighting was back on his feet and charged at him. But before the guard could attack Jaune's unprotected back, he was assaulted by none other by Melanie, who kicked the guard in the side of his head with the front of her foot, kicking him away and making him land in a heap on the ground, unconscious.

Jaune swiftly turned to see Melanie and his would-be assailant, putting two and two together.

"Wow, thanks Melanie." Jaune thanked the whit dressed Malachite. In response, she rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." She replied dismissively. "Keep your head in the game for now on, I'm not going to be able to save your sorry hide if you let your guard down."

Jaune nodded his head, knowing she had a point. "Right, I'll keep that in mind." Jaune promised her.

Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of a seven-man platoon, all of whom were charging right at them.

"Looks like we got company." Jaune pointed out, getting into a fighting stance.

"Looks like it." Melanie said seriously, before grinning. "I say we give them a warm welcome." A grin snaked its way to Jaune's face as he nodded in agreement.

"Yes, let's give them a welcome they won't ever forget." Sharing identical grins, the two Remnant born warriors stood their ground as their enemies closed the distance between them, the duo planning to strike when they saw the whites of their eyes.

While Jaune and Melanie were standing their ground, Nora and Ren were facing against a group of ten of Vincenzo's solders.

Ren was facing four of the guards simultaneously, each one attacking with swift and ferocious strikes, forcing Ren to dodge and weave through their attacks after his guns were wrenched from his hands earlier and didn't have an opening to retrieve them. Suddenly, one of them struck his unprotected side with a baton causing Ren to stagger as the other three took the opportunity and lashed out at him.

Ren covered his head with his arms, clenching his teeth as he was struck multiple times on the torso and arms, his aura protecting him from the blunt of the attacks. After several more seconds of this Ren swerved to the left to dodge a strike and grabs the outstretched limp. Using all his might, he swung the guard and slammed him into the other three, sending them crashing to the ground.

Using this opening to his advantage, the martial artist rushed towards Stormflower and scooped then up as two of the guards started to get back up, both steaming mad.

"I hope Nora is having a better time than I am." Ren sighed as he got ready for round two.

Several feet away, Nora was starting to feel bored as the six guards that were surrounding her stared at her wearily. For the last few minutes, the remaining guards circled around her but did nothing but stare at her, knowing that she was very dangerous based on how well she wielded Magnild.

To say the very least, Nora was nearing the end of her patience and huffed.

"Are any of you going to do anything or am I going to have to come to-" Nora was interrupted when the guard behind her saw an opportunity to strike while she was distracted and lunged at her, striking her exposed neck with his baton.

His assaulted didn't stop there as he smirked evilly and pressed a hidden button on his weapon, sending an unfathomable amount of electricity through her system.

"Got ya now brat!" The man jeered with a cruel smile. "How do you like the feeling of over 10 million volts of electricity coursing through you?" After receiving no answer, he continued talking. "Hurts, doesn't it? But not as much as what we're going to do to your friends after we deal with you."

The other five, deciding to assist him, started to approach Nora menacingly, only to stop when they noticed something concerning about Nora.

Namely the wide grin on her face.

Unaware of his fellow guardsmen's hesitance, the men behind the Huntress-in-training removed the electrified baton from the young Valkyrie's neck, waiting in anticipation for her to collapse in the ground with lifeless eyes. His patience would not be awarded because just like when he was electrocuting her, she made no movement. The guard stood there perplexed and was about to give her another dosage of pain when he heard her chuckle.

He froze as she turned her head towards him, the same grin that stopped his allies in their tracks finally staring him in the face.

"What...what are you?!" The man demanded as he backed away slowly in fear. Without saying a word Nora spun on her heels and delivered a powerful punch to the guard's face, her already impressive strength amplified by the electricity she absorbed, sending the man flying dozens of yards away and crashing into a tree.

The remaining guards stood there transfixed by the power displayed by the seemingly inhuman demon child. Nora slowly turned to face them, the menacing look she was giving them sent shivers down their spines.

~Who's neeeext? ~ Nora sang gleefully.

To their credit the guard's loyalty to Vincenzo stopped them from running at the sight of Nora, so with a battle cry the five armed men stormed towards the young Valkyrie. Their charge was in vain as Nora spun around and caught all of them in their sides with her hammer, rotating several times until all five of the guards were sent flying in all different directions.

"Wow, look at them go." Nora admired her work as the others were finishing their own fights and approached her.

"Alright, I think that's all of the guards on the first floor." Jaune stated, not seeing any more heading towards them.

"Great, then we can finally get in there and drag that ginger bastard out of there by his hair!" Melanie said eager to get revenge Torchwick.

"Shouldn't we wait for Agent-A to get done his fight before we go in?" Nora wondered. "I mean, he did say that we needed to listen to him if we wanted to get this done and live."

They all paused.

"I think we should continue on." Jaune eventually said. "He might still be preoccupied with the sniper and if we wait here for him, Roman could escape and we might lose our last chance to capture him."

"Your right, it's now or never." Nora backed Jaune's choice. "You have my support Jauney."

"And mine." Ren said. "We were lucky that Agent-A was able to find out where they were taking Roman in the first place. If he escapes, we might not be so lucky again."

"And you all already know that I'm in." Melanie said. "I guess it's unanimous, we go after him with everything we've got."

"And once we have the scale piece, we can finally start searching for our friends." Nora said with hope. "Then maybe we can get home."

"Hopefully, but if we fail here...then we might not make it back at all." Ren whispered.

They stood silently, suddenly feeling the full weight of the mission and their own homesickness on their shoulders. Jaune's stomach sank at the thought of not seeing his parents or sisters again and felt the need to embrace them and never letting go. Ren and Nora, although having no family waiting for them back on Remnant, wanted nothing else but to return to the world that they knew. Melanie couldn't care less where she was, as long as both her and her sister were safe, though it wouldn't hurt to return to the club and resume their business practices.

"...We should think about that later." Jaune said somberly. "We still have a mission to do." As quick as flipping a switch, the grim atmosphere around them dissipated and was replaced with determination. The steered their gazes towards the mansion and as if they were one bolted towards the entrance, determined to get to Roman as fast as possible. In the back of their minds, they hoped that Agent-A was doing fine.

-Near the guard's quarters-

Agent-A cussed from behind a tree as he quickly wrapped a bandage around a bullet wound on his upper arm after a bullet grazed it. To say that the vigilante was having a bad time was an understatement, the gap in experience between the two combatants showing as Gonzalo started to wear him down.

Once he was finished applying his bandage, he leaned over and took a potshot at Gonzalo, almost hitting him and caused him to stagger. Seeing his chance, Agent-A emerged from his hiding place and rushed towards another tree. This attracted the Colombian Assassin's attention who fired at the crime fighter. Hearing the shoots, Agent-A dodge rolled under the bullets and into a crouch with his right knee on the ground and fired multiple shots in quick succession.

Gonzalo managed to dodge the first few bullets, but the last one the Agent-A shot hits him square in the shoulder.

"Damn it!" Gonzalo hissed in pain, ducking out of Agent-A's line of sight, and clutching at his wounded shoulder. He took out a knife from his pocket and slowly inserted it into the hole with the intent of digging out the bullet, all the while trying to ignore the shearing pain of his knife digging in his wound.

'Looks like the rumors were true.' The Colombian thought, distracting himself as he felt the blade tap the bullet and slowly maneuvering the tip of the knife to the front of the bullet. 'Which means I need to be more careful and get rid of him fast, maybe give Master Vincenzo his shirt or glasses as a trophy.' After that thought, Gonzalo carefully pulled out his knife along with the bullet, the latter falling to the floor with a hollow clink.

Gonzalo winced as he quickly wrapped a cloth tightly before picking up his sniper rifle and renewed his onslaught. Agent-A cursed as he was forced to dodge the hailstorm of sniper fire.

'Why haven't they taken effect yet?!' The vigilante growled frustratingly before he felt a intense pain explode from his right foot after he stepped in the way of a bullet, allowing the metal ammunition to go right through his foot.

"DAMN IT!" The black-haired man yelled as he tumbled to the ground. He tried to get back to his feet only for the excruciating pain to force him back down.

Gonzalo had him where he wanted him.

Knowing that he had no chance of leaving the spot he was in, Agent-A swung his rifle around to aim at Gonzalo so he could at least fight to the last breath. That hope was quickly shot down by Gonzalo who fired a shot the weapon out of the vigilante's hand and hurled it several yards away and well out of his reach.

Agent-A could only stare blankly at his weapon as his mind desperately scrambled to assess how bad his situation currently was and how to get out of it. So, caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice the Colombian sniper use some rope to rappel down the building until he heard footsteps heading towards him. It took no time for the downed vigilante to turn towards the building to see that Gonzalo was on the ground and walking very slowly towards him, as if savoring the moment while he could.

Acting fast, Agent-A reached into his coat to grab his gun to defend himself, only for the dirt next to his side to explode, courtesy of Gonzalo.

"I wouldn't do that parcero." Gonzalo warned Agent-A, lowering his smoking gun as he quickly reloaded. "You don't want to end up handless before I kill you, do you?"

Agent-A growled but dropped his gun, waiting as his executioner slowly made his way towards the now helpless vigilante, stopping when he was over top of him.

"Now before we end our little game, I would just like to say that I haven't had this much fun in years." Gonzalo remarked, a small smile on his wizened face. "Truly the rumors about your skills were not exaggerated. However, the unfortunate truth is that while you are very much skilled, I have decades more experience than you to fall back on. That is why you were defeated here today...and why you are going to die."

Despite the situation, Agent-A chuckled. "Was bound to happen sometime I suppose, I just wish it wasn't so soon." Agent-A said with a sad smile. "At least I'm going to die against someone skilled and not from some lowly thug that got lucky."

Gonzalo smiled sadly and nodded before pointed the muzzle of his rifle an inch from Agent-A's forehead.

"After you and your invasion group are gone and I patched myself up, I'll have a drink to all of the bravery that you and your group showed this night." Gonzalo assured him as he slowly pulled the trigger, already tasting the wine on his lips and the disorientation and the fatigue that came when he goes overboard with the alcohol and started to feel lightheaded. If he didn't know any better, Gonzalo would have sworn that he had already hit the bottle.

It wasn't until he started to lose feeling in his arm that warning signals blared in Gonzalo's head, the numbness spreading from his shoulder wound to the rest of his arm and his grip on his sniper rifle started to loosen.

'What's happening to me?!' Gonzalo screamed in his head as he started to sway. Seeing all this, Agent-A smiled and quickly kicked the fire arm from Colombian assassin's hand with his good leg, sending it spiraling away before he proceeded to kick him square in the chest. With his mind in a panic and his response time deteriorating, Gonzalo was kicked off his feet and landed on his back, unable to get back up due to the sedative drugs coursing through his body. Realizing that it must have been something the vigilante did, he sent a glare towards Agent-A

"What did you do to me?!" Gonzalo slurred, feeling his mind fogging up as he lost feeling from his neck down.

Agent-A groaned as he pushed himself to a sitting position, smirking at the elderly sniper.

"It's the tranquilizer sedative that's currently running through your veins." The masked man answered. "Better late than never I suppose, though I wish it took effect before you shot me in my foot."

Gonzalo's mind spun at the information. 'How is this possible?! When could he have injected me with a numbing agent? He only managed to hit me that one to-' The Colombian froze as he remembered the bullet that hit his shoulder that he had to fish out.

"Don't tell me that...you were using special tranquilizer ammunition the whole time!" Gonzalo exclaimed, making Agent-A smirk even more.

"Precisely." Agent-A responded, extending his finger and thumb to mimic a gun. "I'm just lucky that I managed to hit you on the shoulder instead of somewhere further from your brain, or else it might not have kicked in when it did and I would be dead beforehand."

With his gun finger, Agent-A imitated a gun shot and recoil. "This is checkmate for you."

Gonzalo eye twitched angrily as his vision blurred and the fogginess almost enveloped his mind completely.

'Damnit...all...' Was Gonzalo's last thought before he lost consciousness and his world went dark.

Agent-A sighed in relief as he watched Gonzalo's body went limp.

"Thank God that's over." Agent-A remarked as he forced himself to his feet, ignoring the excruciating pain emanating from the hole in his foot. "I just hope that those kids are having a better time than me."

The vigilante turns his gaze downwards towards the unconscious marksman and frowns.

'We barely got here and our plans are already going downhill.' Agent-A thought in dismay as he stepped towards his tranquilizer rifle and picks it up. 'I just hope that we don't run into anymore nasty surprises waiting for us in the manor, but for now, I need to get back to the kids.'

Agent-A pressed his finger on his ear piece and turned it on.

"Jaune, this is Agent-A, do you read?" Agent-A asked, and waited for a response, frowning several seconds later when he didn't get a reply."Jaune, Nora, Melanie, Ren; do any of you copy? Answer me!" Again, he was met with a soft static noise. "Damn it, the ear piece must have been damaged during the fight." Agent-A growled and moved his arm away from the ear piece. "I better go find them before they get into trouble."

Without a moment to lose, Agent-A made his way to the household of the Red Devil as fast as his injuries will left him, hoping he makes it to them before they face someone far beyond their level.

-With Team JNMR-

It didn't take the group of four to make their way to the other end of the building where the stairs were located, only pausing to take down a few stragglers that they hadn't fought outside the manner and to examine the same statue that caught Roman's attention earlier. It was lucky that they moved past the statue as soon as they did because the depiction of the man getting his liver eaten by the large bird made them queasy, Jaune especially.

"This must be the stairs from the briefing." Jaune remarked. "What do you guys think will be waiting up there?"

"More nameless, low level minions for us to take down." Nora said gleefully, her thirst for battle not yet quenched from the tussle with guards outside.

"Most likely the other elites Agent-A mentioned." Ren answered rationally.

"That treacherous, rat-faced bastard Torchwick." Melanie growled. "And valuable and rare stuff for us to burn!" The trio slowly turned to face the Malachite sister with confused expressions.

"What? I'm pissed that the boss here made things harder for us, what the problem with a little harmless revenge?" Melanie tried to defend herself.

'Because I don't want to piss off someone big enough to twist me into a pain pretzel!' Jaune yelled in his head.

"Because I don't what the house to potentially catch on fire while we're possible still on it." Jaune answered calmly.

Melanie turned her head and mumbled under her breath that sounded suspiciously like 'killjoy'. Jaune simply shook his head and stared at the stairway door.

"Regardless of what we might find, we need to push on!" Ren stated matter-of-fact.

The others nodded and opened the door to reveal the promised stair case. Without hesitation, they stormed up the staircase until they reached the end of the stairs and the door that leads to the second floor. Nora clasped the doorknob and turned it as each of them expected something different waiting on the other side. What they didn't expect to see was to be greeted by an empty hallway.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 2 tell unleashed part 2

The group of four just stared at the barren hallway in silence.

"Did not see that coming." Jaune eventually said taking a few steps forward and examined corridor.

"Yeah, where are the fancy stuff and guards?" Nora questions with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

"If I was a betting gal, I would say that they're all on the top floor." Melanie spoke up. "Which makes it easier for us since we won't have to deal with anyone here."

"In that case, we should get up there as soon as possible before anyone else comes and spots us." Jaune stated.

After a string of nods the group began their stroll down the corridor, the sounds of their feet meeting the floor echoing with each step.

After a minute, they made it to what they thought was the end of the hallway, only got them to turn and see that the corridor continued.

"How long is this thing?" Nora wondered, getting bored of seeing the same thing repeatedly as they continued their journey.

"I don't know, maybe it wraps around the entire building." Jaune guessed.

"If that's the case, then it makes even less sense for there not to be anything here or guards patrolling this hall." Melanie pointed out. "It makes the entire floor pointless!"

"Maybe we're missing something." Ren suddenly said, getting the others attention. "Like there's a point to this room that were just not seeing."

Jaune looked at Ren in concern. "You mean like we walked right into a-" Before Jaune could finish, the sound of machinery coming to life behind them filled the hall. They turned around just as a metal wall was descending halfway towards the floor.

"RUN!" Ren yelled prompting the group to rush towards the rapidly falling wall, only for the wall to close before they could escape.

Melanie punched the metal wall with a frustrated groan.

"Just great, now we're stuck in here!" Melanie said angrily, giving the door a good kick before leaned on it with a huff.

"Hey, at least things couldn't possibly get any worse." Jaune tried to assure her. As soon as he said that the group heard two heavy foots steps coming from behind them. They turned to see two large men in red suits and gas masks covering their faces appearing from the far corner. On their backs were metal cylinders that were almost as large as them. Attached to the cylinders and in the men's hands were nozzles with a small flame on the ends.

Melanie sent Jaune a harsh glare. "I hate you, I hate you so much." The Malachite sister said with contempt as the two men slowly making their way towards them.

Without warning the two burly men activated their weapons, sending two torrents of flame towards the heroes. The quartet were forced to jump out of the way of the incoming death streams and hide behind the pillars attached to the walls. Jaune and Melanie were pinned down behind the pillar on the left while Ren and Nora were pinned to the right.

Their efforts to avoid certain death didn't face the two elites as they continued their slow pace towards where the four were hiding, a wall of fire between the two opposing groups.

"This isn't good." Ren hissed in frustration. "It's only a matter of time before they get to us then it'll be all over."

"Don't worry Renny." Nora smiled despite the current situation as her hammer turned into a grenade launcher. "I got this."

Before she could even move, Ren halted her with his arm and forced her to lower her weapon.

"We can't use that in here Nora!" Ren quickly told her with urgency. "The area is two small and the explosion might cave the ceiling onto our heads!"

"Well one of us has to do something or we're going to be extra crispy!" Melanie yelled over the roar of the fire.

Jaune wracked his brain for a solution to their plight when suddenly an idea popped into his head.

'If we can manage to cut into the fuel hose connecting the tanks to the igniter, we might be able to light the leaking gas and create a small enough explosion to incapacitate those two without kill them or us.' Jaune planned in his head. 'The question is how to do it.'

After taking several moments to consider some ideas Jaune's eyes widen while a smile adorned his face. 'I think we can do this.' Jaune thought as he turned towards Melanie.

"Hey, I have an idea." Jaune told her, catching her attention.

"Whatever it is, I'm in as long as it gets us out of here." Melanie said without hesitation. "So, what do you have?"

"I need you to follow my lead and stay behind me." Jaune told her. Melanie looked uncertain but nodded.

"Alright, but if I get burnt at all, I'm tossing you off the roof." Melanie warned him, but otherwise will to go through with whatever plan he has.

Jaune nodded and took a deep breath before bolting out from behind the pillar and charging towards the muscular men followed by Melanie. "NORA, REN! FOLLOW OUR LEAD!" Jaune yelled towards his teammate as he activated his semblance, a bright aura encasing him, protecting him from the flames and creating a pathway for Melanie to follow him without getting caught up in the inferno.

The elite guardsmen, not expecting this, weren't able to react in time as Jaune swung upwards at the igniter held by guardsman that was previously pinning him and Melanie down, forcing it and arm holding it upwards. The elite tried to slam the igniter onto Jaune's head, but was stopped when the blonde blocked it and tried to keep it there, finding it difficult as the guardsman using all his strength to push down.

As this was happening, Melanie charged towards the other flamethrower kicked his igniter upwards similarly like Jaune had with the other. But unlike Jaune, she was forced to block with her arms, forming an X over her head with her arms as the much larger man attempted to slam the igniter on her head.

Having realized what they were planning, Ren and Nora rushed towards them, Nora heading towards Melanie while Ren ran right in the middle of the hall, Stormflower in each hand. Nora was rapidly closing the distant between her and her target.

"SWITCH OUT!" Nora yelled towards the Malachite. Having heard her, Melanie waited until the last second to dodge sideways as Nora's hammer intercepted the igniter, easily keeping it in place as Ren ran pass her and behind the flamethrowers, his target being the fuel hoses. With quick and precision, Ren sliced through both the hoses right where the hoses connects to the igniters, causing gas to leak from the hoses.

Seeing that the deed was done, Ren and Melanie rushed back to their previous hiding spots behind the pillars. Following their example, Jaune and Nora jumped backwards and rushed towards their comrades as fast as they could. With the sudden disappearance of the teens, the two flamethrower elites lost balance and dropped the detached igniters onto the floor where the gas was leaking, igniting them and following the escaping gas into the hoses and into the fuel tanks.

"Oh shit!" The duo yelled from their masks before the tanks on their back combusted and exploded, the force of it slamming them into the wall and rendering them unconscious.

The team poked their heads from behind the pillars to check if the work and the coast was clear. Upon seeing that the mountainous men were passed out, they left the safely of the pillars and crowded around the two.

"Looks like we've taken care of that." Ren said as he gently prodded one of the guards with his foot, satisfied that he didn't stir.

Melanie started to prod the other comatose guard, though less gentle than Ren. "I hate to say it, but that plan was pretty solid-"

Jaune smiled at her compliment. "Thanks, I really apprecia-"

"Despite you being a complete doofus." Melanie completed her statement causing the blonde to frown.

"...Duly noted." Jaune acknowledged with an unamused look causing Nora to snicker at the exchange while Ren simply smiled.

"As amusing as it is to listen to your banter, we still have a job to do." Ren reminded them.

"Your right." Jaune stood up straight, a serious look on his face. "We're almost on the top floor and to our objective."

"Roman." Melanie hissed venomously. "The sooner we find him the sooner I can force that stupid bowler hat of his down his throat!"

"Then there's no time to lose." Ren stated, cutting Melanie's off before she went on a tangent on what she was going to do to Roman. This seemed to calm the Malachite down enough for her to nod in agreement.

"Alright then, away we go then." Jaune said as he led the group through the corridor.

"So how much longer do you think we are from the next stairway?" Nora asked the others.

"I'm sure that we're almost there by now." Melanie answered confidently as they rounded the corner, only to be faced by another hallway. "...I really hate this place." Melanie declared as her face fell.

After several minutes of trudging through the long hallway, they were happy to find a door finally waiting for them at the end of the floor.

"About damn time!" Melanie said grumpily as she grasped the doorknob and turned it, stopping herself from squealing in delight to see stairs when she opened the door. They were quick to go through the door and up the stairs, stopping right at the door at the top by Jaune.

"Before we go in there, I think that we should be as quiet and quick as we can, we don't know what we'll find on the other side." Jaune told them, making sure that they don't rush in there and possibly shot before they knew what happened.

They nodded and took defensive positions as Jaune grabbed the handle and turned it, slowly cracking the door open slightly and peeked through the small crack. He quickly glanced around the hallway beyond for any threats. Upon seeing no one patrolling the area, Jaune silently beckoned his team to follow him as he opened the door wider, allowing him and the others to enter the top floor of Vincenzo's manor.

Once they were freed from the confines of the stairway, they took a moment to drink in their surroundings. Unlike the previous floor, which was barren and lifeless, this floor was lavishly decorated with stone-tiled flooring with a red velvet carpet covering the middle of the floor, and walls made from red wood with picture frames hanging of them. Dotting the hallway were stands with various pots, vases, and more pictures frames filling the spaces on top.

"Wow!" Nora said in awe as she approached a stand with a red vase and examined the highly detailed floral patterns painted on it.

"This place looks amazing." Jaune stated, examining a photo with a large man that could possibly be the Red Devil of crime himself and a young man roughly their age standing together.

"My thoughts exactly, if nothing else, we can say that Vincenzo has good taste in interior decorating." Melanie commented. "But enough about that, we have a crook to catch."

"So, we should find him as quickly as possible and get out of here before anyone else tries to stop us." Ren told them.

"Don't forget quietly." Jaune added. "And we need to stick together and try not get separated."

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Sure thing leader." She said sarcastically as she made her way down the hall. Jaune huffed and followed her with Ren and Nora trailing shortly behind.

As they made their way through the floor, they checked the rooms that they passed for Roman, only to find several bedrooms, a few studies, and even a dining room, but no crook.

"Where the hell could he be?" Melanie hissed silently after shutting the door of the bathroom she just looked in.

"I'm not sure, but we should find him before we run out of rooms." Jaune said reassuringly.

"Unless they already moved him to another location before we even arrived." Ren grimly pointed out, only for Jaune to shake his head.

"I doubt they would have moved him this quickly, they had to rush just to get Roman here after what happened at that club, so they probably didn't plan that far ahead." Jaune explained.

"I guess that's right." Ren muttered, loss in thought as the turned a corner. "It just means that we'll have to search the entire floor before we find him, we might have to search the rooms more thoroughly in case we missed something."

"Or he's behind the metal door that guy's in front of." Nora suddenly mentioned. This stopped the others in their tracks as they stared in front of them to see Diavolo leaning on the vault door, smoking a cigarette. They assumed that he didn't notice them standing there as he continued smoking, not paying them any attention. Their hopes were quickly dashed as he finished his cigarette and put it out in a potted plant next to him before calming turning to face them.

"So, the little rats finally found their way through the maze and to the cheese." Diavolo said, making the group scowl at being called rats. "To be honest, I don't know whether or not I should be surprised that you four managed to make your way here. One on hand, I told Master Acerbi that the new batch of guardsmen weren't ready to start patrolling the grounds." Diavolo had a sour look on his face as he mentioned this. "But on the other, you four managed to get past not only the Columbian Death Shooter, but the Twin Flaming Hurricanes as well, not just anyone could claim to have done as such."

"Just who are you?!" Ren demanded, feeling uneasy being near the man in front of them.

Diavolo chuckled. "Of course, where are my manners." The red clad man said almost good-naturedly. "I am Diavolo, also known as The Satanic Enforcer and leader of Vincenzo's elites." Diavolo introduced himself with a bow.

"Hold on, you're the leader of the elites?" Nora asked.

Diavolo rose from his bow. "Indeed I am, I'm also Master Vincenzo Acerbi's personal bodyguard and driver as well as the top enforcer, interrogator, assassin, and above all else the butler." Diavolo's smile became more sinister as he continued. "And like any good butler, I take out the trash that insists on troubling my Master, as painfully and gory as possible."

If anything, Jaune became even more unnerved.  
"I bet your as much as a psychopath as every other person we've dealt with so far!" Nora exclaimed, causing Diavolo to start laughing like a maniac before composing himself.

"Well you're not that far off, I am a bit of a sadist when I get into my work." Diavolo admitted. "And by coming here, you all volunteered yourself to see how much of a sadist I can be, but I do find myself wondering just what horrors will await you."

At this moment, the enforcer started to pace back and forth from the vault door to the wall and back again.

"Maybe I could insert sharp sticks under each of your finger and toenails and push them in until they're torn from your body, or maybe dissect you without anesthesia do you feel as I remove each organ, you know, I might decide to strip you all down and slowly skin you alive. Whatever I do, I bet Roman would like to watch as I do it." As he listed off ways to torture them he kept his tone calm and collective, as if he was debating what he should order from a restaurant.

That's what unnerved the Remnant born team the most.

"You-you're a monster!" Jaune stuttered as he took steps back to increase the distance from him and Diavolo. The sudden outburst caused Diavolo to stop and turn his attention to the blonde, singling him out from the rest.

"You know...you remind me of a blonde hero that humiliated me a long time ago." Diavolo told Jaune, glaring at him hatefully.

"Just thinking about him and the fact that I couldn't get revenge on him frustrates me to no end!" Diavolo then smiles evilly at the blonde. "But maybe killing you first will ease my frustration a little bit, so how about it? Do you want to be the first to suffer?"

"N-No!" Jaune stammered out in fear, earning a dark chuckle from the uniformed man.

"To bad for you...it was a rhetorical question." Diavolo told Jaune before he suddenly leapt into the air, doing a flip midair before landing into a handstand infringement of the blonde. Using his momentum, Diavolo spun around and delivered a devastating spin kick into the side of Jaune's face, the force of the blow sending him into the wall which cracked under the pressure.

The group stared at their fallen friend in horror.

"JAUNE!" Ren yelled before growling at Diavolo, who smirked and beckoned them to attack him. The taunt worked like a charm as both Ren and Nora charged at Diavolo, attacking him simultaneously in the hopes to bring him down fast. It was in vain as Vincenzo's right hand man proved to be more agile then they could have possibly predicted, effortlessly dodging and side stepping around their attacks.

Growing frustrated that they weren't making any progress, Melanie rushed towards the skirmish while Diavolo's back was to her. The Malachite twin smirked, Diavolo gave no indication that he knew she was coming in for a sneak attack and leapt at him with the intention to smash her foot on top of his head to knock him out. In a split second, however, Diavolo ducked down and rolled backwards to avoid the attack, causing Melanie to instead crash right into the two Beacon students and get tangled with their limbs.

"Owie!" Nora whined as they untangled themselves. "That really hurts you know?!"

"Get over it!" Melanie snapped at the orange haired girl. "I'm not exactly having a good time over here too you know!?"

Jaune, still recovering from the impact, shakily tried to get up to continue fighting only for Diavolo slam his foot on Jaune's back, forcing him down to the ground. With no regards to the already injured teen, Diavolo unleashed a volley of kicks to Jaune's ribs and back. Once he was tired of that, Vincenzo's right hand bent over and grabbed the blonde's shirt collar and roughly hoisted him up so their eyes met.

"Is this truly all the fight you four had in you? How pathetic." Diavolo mocked them. Before he could say or do anything else, Jaune spat at Diavolo and hit his cheek, glaring defiantly at the driver.

"No matter how much stronger or better you are, we will defeat you." Jaune growled at Diavolo.

For a moment, Diavolo stared passively at Jaune, taking a moment to swipe the spit off his cheek before swiftly punching Jaune square in the face, then punched him repeatedly without stop.

At seeing the sheer brutality of Diavolo's assault on Jaune, the others leapt to their feet and charged at the sadistic man, each one of them filled with rage.

"HERE COMES THE PAIN TRAIN!" Nora yelled as she prepared to deliver a powerful swipe towards the driver to free her leader. Faster then she could blink, Diavolo nabbed Jaune's shield and lobbed it at Nora, smacking her face with enough force to break her nose and sent her flying backwards.

Ren skidded to a complete stop as he witnessed his childhood friend flying past him and Melanie.

"NORA!" Ren yelled with worry, his focus deviating from his target. This proved to be an error as Diavolo dropped Jaune and with lightning-like speed charged at Ren. The magenta-eyed teen had no time to consider his folly before the driver was upon him and delivered a devastating uppercut to Ren's chin and sent him flying towards Nora.

Melanie didn't hesitate to strike at Diavolo with her bladed heel, thinking that he left himself wide open. Her assumption was misplaced as Diavolo effortlessly caught her outstretched leg before lifting her up and then slamming her into the ground and kept his hold on her leg.  
"Allow me to educate you on what it takes to be permitted the honor of becoming an elite of Mr. Acerbi's private forces." Diavolo told her before clearing his throat. "For someone aspiring to become one of the top guardsmen of the estate, they must be able to prove that they are stronger and better skilled then the others here. Take Gonzalo Alcantar for example, he capabilities as a sniper exceeds almost all non superhuman on the planet, even despite his advancing age. And you four saw firsthand how well the Twin Flaming Hurricanes could use the limited space of the second floor to their advantages. While those three are talented, it takes someone of more impressive feats to be the leader of the elites and Master's right hand."

At that, Diavolo smirks. "That's where I come in. My exceptional reflexes and hand to hand expertise, I was able to prove that I stood beyond the rest under Master Vincenzo's employ." Diavolo bragged. "But what really caught Master's favor wasn't just my fighting abilities..."

With no remorse, Diavolo gave Melanie's leg a hard twist, breaking her leg and making her howl in pain as tears ran down her face.

"...but my brutality." Diavolo finished as he loosened his grip on her land and allowed it to hit the ground.

"No! Melanie!" Nora yelled, holding her arm towards the now whimpering girl in a vain attempt to reach out to her.

"You psychotic bastard!" Ren growled, trying to get back up only for Diavolo to calmly walk over and kick him back down.

"No need to rush friend, there will be plenty of time for your turn." Diavolo assured him with an arrogant smirk. "But since you're so eager, I'll finish with her sooner and get right back to you for your turn."

Diavolo turned his attention towards Melanie, who was shakily trying to get up to fight him off, only for her leg to fail her and causing her to fall and cry out in pain. Seeing this, the demented right hand of Vincenzo chuckle to himself and pulled out a butterfly knife.

"Please don't get up yet, we aren't quite finished yet." Diavolo said as he swiftly flipped open the knife and held it to her face, or specifically her right eye. "But don't worry, it'll be over real soon."

Melanie felt terror coursing through her veins, her life flashing through her eyes as the blade of the knife inched closer to her eye. Despair soon followed suit as she realized that not only was she going to die young in a world not her own, but she was going to leave Militia alone in this messed up world without her sister by her side. The only solace that she could find during her final moments before she is tortured then killed was that, if he was serious about being with her, Carzon would at least help Militia with the hardships ahead.

Her thoughts were swiftly interrupted by the sound of a gun being fired and a bullet hitting the knife out of Diavolo's hand and landing several feet away, making the man cuss and shake his stinging hand. Everyone turned towards the direction the shot came from to see Agent-A holding a smoking gun in his hand.

"Sorry for being so late, the fight took longer than I Would have liked." Agent-A apologized as he slowly made his way towards them, trying to hide his limping.

Luckily Diavolo was too busy scowling at Agent-A to notice his limp.

"So, we meet again Agent-A, it would seem that fate brought us together again." Diavolo stated coldly.

"Indeed, it did." Agent-A replied with equal distain. "I would say it was a pleasure meeting up with you again after our last encounter, but we both know that would be a lie."

Diavolo chuckled darkly. "Oh yes, I remember that time well enough. I was overseeing some shipments that our compatriots from Japan was sending over to Master Acerbi when you strolled alone and killed not only the handlers of the shipment but the dozen men that accompanied me to protect the cargo."

The dark-haired man nodded, remembering that day well. "Yes, and if I remembered correctly I managed to graze your shoulder before you turned tail and ran back to your master with your tail in-between your legs." Agent-A said with a smirk.

Diavolo frowned as he gently griped his left shoulder, covering where he was shot.

"You caused no end of trouble to my Master because of that." Diavolo told him. "Not only was his plans delayed, but we had to bring in new a batch recruits to replace the seasoned guards you slaughtered. Believe me when I say that Master Acerbi was greatly angered by this little upset."

His frown quickly flipped upside down, showing a demented smile that showed most of his teeth. "But that doesn't matter now because I'm going to get revenge right here and now, by ending your ceaseless meddling once and for all!"

The vigilante humphed and got into a battle stance. "The only thing you're going to get is a lengthy sentence in a prison cell." Agent-A told Vincenzo's right hand.

Without a moment's hesitation, the driver leapt into the air towards Agent-A, executing a perfect 540-degree tornado kick only for Agent-A to block it with his arm. Not deterred in the slightest, Diavolo grabbed the vigilante's head and used his weight to slam the black-haired man into the ground before landing on his feet. Not even a second after his feet touched the floor, Diavolo charged at Agent-A yet again, this time aiming to throw a punch at Agent-A's exposed head, only for said man to roll out of the way as the villain's fist met the spot the vigilante's head was a millisecond before.  
Taking advantage of this Agent-A swung his leg at Diavolo and smacked him right to the side of the driver's face with his injured foot by accident, causing him to hiss in both pain and surprise as Diavolo was sent flying towards the wall. Quickly reorienting himself, Diavolo planted his feet on the wall and used it as a springboard to gain some distance from his opponent. After landing gracefully in his feet, Diavolo finally took notice of Agent-A's bloodied shoe then put two and two together b fore smirking.

"So it would seem that you didn't get out of your fight with Gonzalo unscathed." Diavolo said mockingly. "And yet you still decided that it would be a good idea to tussle with me with such a crippling injury, bad move."

Agent-A sneered at him in response. "I've fought more dangerous degenerates than you with worse injuries and won, you're nothing compared to any of them. So, this little flesh wound won't save you from your much-deserved beating."

Diavolo simply smirked and used a 'come hither' gesture. "We'll see about that, won't we?"

Without hesitation, they both charged simultaneously and grabbed each other's hand, straining themselves as used all their strength to push the other in a bid of gain dominance against the other as they grunted from exertion. The four teens could only watch and hope that their ally comes out at top, to exhausted and injured to assist Agent-A. After several moments of their power struggle, Agent-A reared back his head then smashed his forehead into Diavolo's head, making him to let go of Agent-A's hands in shock and stubble back in pain. Using his stunned confusion to his advantage, the masked vigilante pulled out one of his guns from his trench coat and aimed it an inch from Diavolo's head, ready to pull the trigger. The four was stunned from the sudden turn of events.

"Agent-A! Don't do it!" Jaune cried out towards the vigilante. Agent-A snapped his neck towards the injured blonde and glared at him.

"Will you shut up!" Agent-A snapped at Jaune, focusing all his attention on the blonde. This proved to be a mistake, the distracting being enough for Diavolo to quickly disarm Agent-A and aimed his own gun at him.

"You must be losing your edge Agent-A, letting yourself be distracted so easily like that." Diavolo goaded Agent-A, who simply glared back. "And now...you die."

Time seemed to slow down for the group as Diavolo pulled the trigger, all of them mentally screaming as they thought that Agent-A was going to die in front of them. They all closed their eyes as they awaited the telltale sound of a gunshot.

'Click'

Hearing that sound instead bewildered them and forced them to open their eyes in curiosity, only to see that Diavolo was just as confused as they were. Agent-A, on the other hand, had a large, knowing smile on his face.

Before the driver could further reflect on what was going on, Agent-A lashed out at Diavolo and jabbed something into his neck. The right hand yelled and quickly jumped away from him and ripped the offending object from his neck, the color draining from his face when he recognized it as a tranquilizer dart.

"You...you tricked me...you were planning this from the beginning weren't you!?" Diavolo demanded as he dropped the dart.

If anything, Agent-A's smile widened. "Got it in one." Agent-A admitted as he stooped down to pick up the discarded dart and started to swiftly twirl it between his fingers. "You see I knew that you're the kind of person to use whatever is available at your disposal to take out your opposition, so I removed the bullets from that gun while I was making my way up here. Then it was all a matter of waiting for the perfect moment to spring my trap."

"So you pretended to get distracted by that idiot blonde's screaming?!" Diavolo further demanded/asked.

The smile never left Agent-A's face. "Again, you are right on the money. I knew that the moment I took the gun out he would instantly tell me to stop, giving me a perfect excuse to look distracted, all the while hiding the dart I took out my pocket when you took my gun away. The rest is history." The vigilante dropped the dart and stepped on it, grinding it under his boot.

Diavolo felt his blood boil as the bitter sting feeling of humiliation coursed through him like the paralyzing agent spreading through his body, making him feel weak and light headed.

"You...bastard." Was Diavolo's last words before he fell to the side as the tranquilizer took full effect and numbed his body to all his senses before passing out.

The four Remnant born fighters felt relieve sweeping through them, glad that this was over now. They couldn't help but feel impressed by his strategy and foresight.

"You really know your stuff Agent-A." Jaune praised the vigilante, who smiled back.

"I couldn't have done it without your predictability." Agent-A told him, making a subtle jab at Jaune.

The blonde was about to say something until he realized that he was insulted and gave Agent-A the stink eye.

"You suck." Jaune said sourly, causing Agent-A and the others to laugh.

"So, are all of you going to be alright?" Agent-A asked after he was finished laughing.

"Most of us are fine." Ren answered. "Our aura took the blunt of the damage, so we should be fine once we had time to recover, though Melanie took more damage than anyone else."

The vigilante threw him a confused look, not sure what he meant by aura.

"What do you mean by aura?" Agent-A asked Ren.

"We'll explain later when we get out of here." Jaune interjected before Ren could answer. "But first we need to get Roman."

Agent-A nodded in understanding while Nora was attending to Melanie.

"Will you be able to get up?" Nora gently asked Melanie, who nodded.

"I think I'll be alrigh-aargh!" The twin tried to assure the orange haired girl as she attempted to get up, only to cry out in pain and fall back down. Without saying a word, Nora gently lifted Melanie off the ground and hooked her arm around Melanie's back, using herself as a mix shift crutch for her injured comrade.

"Don't worry Melly, I'll hold you up until we get back." Nora beamed at Melanie. The Malachite twin couldn't help but to be touched by the sentiment and smiled lightly.

"Thank you." Melanie thanked the orange haired Valkyrie.

"No prob." Nora chirped happily.

Agent-A smiled at the exchange before turning and gave the vault a frown.

"Alright! You four did a fantastic job getting this far without my guidance, to say that I'm deeply impressed would be an understatement." Agent-A praised them for their effort, the four younger fighters feeling pride swell up inside them. "But it's time to put an end to this chase this once and for all!" He turns towards Ren and Jaune. "You two will come with me while Nora and Melanie stay out here and makes sure that no one tries to interfere or to stop Roman from running out." Everyone nodded at their appointed job as Agent-A quickly dismantled the locks and prepared for the skirmish that will likely follow suit.

Jaune and Ren held their breaths as Agent-A slowly opened the door, feeling extremely tense as they readied their weapons to guard themselves if Roman immediately goes on the offense once he sees them. Suddenly, Agent-A threw the door wide open and quickly drew his gun and aimed inside the room as the hunters-in-training were about to leap into the room. What greeted them caused them to nearly drop their weapons in shock and horror.

Namely an empty room with Ronan Torchwick in sight.

"Where is he?!" Jaune exclaimed as he rushed past Ren and Agent-A and in the room, looking around frantically in the vain attempt to find their target.

"I don't know...he should have been in here." Agent-A commented with worry. The commotion alerted Melanie and Nora, both of whom made their way into the room.

"What's going on?" Nora asked them.

"And where's Torchwick." Melanie asked with suspicion and dread as she scanned the room and didn't spot him. Ren shook his head with a grim expression.

"Not here." Ren explained.

Melanie's face went blank as she stared at the floor.

"...Are you kidding me?" Melanie asked rhetorically under her breath almost inaudibly. Her body then started to shake as she started to seethe in anger. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME! WE WENT THROUGH ALL THAT BULLSHIT AND HE'S NOT EVEN HERE!" As she screamed in frustration, hot tears streamed down her face as her breaking point was reached.

Ren turned away from the heart wrenching scene and noticed, for the first time, a folded-up piece of paper on the floor. Curious, he went over and picked it up and was shocked to see that it was addressed to Agent-A.

"Agent-A!" Ren called out, getting said man's attention.

"Did you find anything?" The masked vigilante asked as he walked up to Ren, grabbing everyone's attention.

Ren was silent as he held the paper out for him. "It's for you." Ren said, Agent-A gently took the paper and saw that his name was on it. Without hesitation, he fully unfolded the paper and read it out loud.

"You five had done well to make it this far, but it's not quite time yet for you to obtain your prize. If you no longer want to participate in the chase, then stop reading now and go about your normal daily routines. If you want to see this through to the end, however, meet me at the address I provided below at the specified time. I know you won't disappoint Agent-A."

Agent-A silently skimmed the paper again and saw no signature.

"Do you think it's one of Vincenzo's henchmen?" Melanie wondered aloud with red puffy eyes, managing to calm herself down from her anger filled episode.

"It's hard to say, the writer didn't leave a signature." The vigilante admitted as he flipped the paper over and instantly regretted that decision as he visibly paled and tensed.

"What's wrong? Did you find out who sent this?" Jaune inquired.

"He's back." Agent-A whispered, ignoring the question altogether.

"Who's back?" Nora asked.

Agent-A slowly turned the paper to show them what he found. What they saw was an image of a skull attached to the top of a cross.

"Dhampir Grim."


End file.
